Weapon of choice for psychos whose aim is maximum harm

THE 26-YEAR-OLD who slaughtered worshipers in a small Texas church used a type of AR-15 rifle — the weapon of choice in several mass shootings.

Devin Kelley’s military-style Ruger AR-556 killed 26 and wounded 20 worshipers inside the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs during Sunday services.

The AR-15 was used to rain death in Las Vegas on Oct. 1; Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012; Aurora, Colo., on July 20, 2012, and San Bernardino, Calif., on Dec. 2, 2015.

The gun, which retails for $849 and weighs 6.5 pounds, fires bullets that can disintegrate bone and leave an exit wound the size of a softball. Gun experts say the rifle is common in mass murders in part because it’s based on the military’s M-16 — giving it a seal of approval for reliability and effectiveness.

“You can’t get any better of an endorsement for a gun than its use by the government,”said Jerold Levine, author of the book “New York Assault Weapon Laws.”

Kelley served in the Air Force but was kicked out for assaulting his then spouse and infant child in 2012, records show. He was found dead with what authorities say appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his crashed vehicle moments after the massacre.

During the Clinton administration, many models of the rifle and other guns that were too similar to military-style weapons were banned. The federal assault weapons ban, in effect from 1994 to 2004, included any semiautomatic rifle with a pistol grip and a bayonet mount. But there are millions of AR-15 rifles owned in the United States right now, gun experts say. A bill to ban AR-15s and similar weapons has stalled in Washington.