

The platform has been used in other mass shootings. However, the brace can also be used to shoulder the rifle like a regular stock, as shown in videos, making the pistol function essentially no different from a rifle. They are sold either with nothing attached or with a stabilizing brace that helps the operator secure the weapon to the forearm for one-handed firing, like a typical pistol. The lack of a stock is another factor that lets AR-15-style pistols skirt the definition of a rifle. A shorter barrel will reduce some muzzle velocity. For example, Ruger’s AR-556 pistol models have barrels between 9.5 and 10.5 inches, or about half-a-foot shorter than its rifle cousin. That ammunition travels much faster and with more energy compared with common pistol rounds like the 9mm and are known to create more serious wounds, researchers and physicians have said.ĪR-15-style pistols have much shorter barrels than typical rifles. The pistols even use the same ammunition and magazines as their AR-15-style rifle counterparts. The firearms are modeled after semiautomatic rifles and have similar mechanisms. What is an AR-15-style pistol?ĪR-15-style pistols are a broad type of weapon that includes the Ruger.

The suspect used a Ruger AR-556 pistol in the shootings, police said, after buying it legally from a gun store days before. The type of weapon, championed by some gun enthusiasts but relatively obscure among the general public, has become more visible following the massacre Monday in Boulder, Colo., in which a gunman killed 10 people in a grocery store. That affects how they are bought, sold and regulated.

Two key components that help define what a rifle is, the barrel and the stock, have been altered by firearm manufacturers to circumvent existing gun laws, critics have said, producing a weapon that functions much like a rifle but is legally classified as a pistol. “It’s still great for all the applications of a pistol - or a rifle,” the Ruger staffer said in the 2019 video. The compact body features the same rail system as wildly popular AR-15-style rifles, he noted, allowing owners to attach accessories like optics and flashlights, and its short barrel makes for easy transport. In a promotional video for the Ruger AR-556, a company product manager gushed that the weapon, legally designated as a pistol but closer to an AR-15 rifle in design, offered much more than a typical handgun.
