An Expert Answers Democrats' Most Burning Question: Why Does Anyone Need an AR-15?

It’s a cry we hear time and again: Why does anyone need a black, spookily-shaped, mysterious “weapon of war” — which has never been used by the U.S. military?

Contrary to frequently wild framing, the AR-15 is simply the modern iteration of a basic rifle. Take Daniel Boone’s “Old Tick Licker,” fast-forward 270 years, and you get something lighter, more capacious, more accurate, and more easily accessorized.

But why should you — or Daniel’s great (times six) grandchildren — own one? Via a recent video, gun guru Colion Noir fights that burning question with a well’s worth of water.

In case you’re unfamiliar, the Houston-based activist and attorney has hosted NRATV and spoken at the National Rifle Association’s convention; his pro-2A YouTube channel boasts over two million subscribers, and he’s appeared as featured guest on The Joe Rogan Experience as well as Real Time with Bill Maher.

As for why anyone needs an AR, Colion offers a handful of reasons — one for each finger.

But first, he makes clear, “The Second Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights and not the Bill of Needs. … [T]here isn’t a ‘need’ requirement for which gun you can use under the Second Amendment.”

Now on to the list…

Reason #1:

You need an AR-15 to defend against break-ins with multiple suspects.

Colion asks the liars to please stand up:

“If you knew that four guys with guns were going to break into your home or business and try to brutally murder you and your family, which gun would you pick to defend yourself — a handgun or an AR-15? If you said the handgun, you’re a liar. If you said the AR-15, you just made my point. The AR-15 is the best gun to use against multiple armed intruders who are trying to kill you.”

“During a home invasion with multiple suspects,” he notes, “you’re already at a huge disadvantage. … You only get seconds to react to people trying to kill you. But these scumbags get days or even weeks to plan ahead of time.”

Life is full of compromises, but some aren’t requisite:

“Handguns are a compromise. Yes, they’re easy to carry, but they’re largely underpowered and much harder to shoot accurately compared to AR-15s. Shotguns have the stopping power but lack the capacity. This is fine if the people trying to kill you run away once you start shooting. But if they stay and fight, you’re screwed. That’s where the AR-15 comes in. AR-15s are easier to shoot accurately, they have a higher capacity and much less recoil. An AR-15 is exceedingly easier to suppress than a shotgun, so you have the added advantage of protecting your hearing. All of these factors immediately put you on an equal playing field with the scumbags who are trying to kill you. Long story short: All of the benefits that people like to say an AR-15 gives to criminals [it also gives] to law-abiding citizens.”

“Honestly,” he says, “I could end the video right there. But let’s keep going.”

Reason #2:

You need an AR-15 to defend yourself against civil unrest.

“[W]hen this happens, you can’t rely on the police because they’re too busy trying to deal with the chaos. … In mobs, people do things they normally wouldn’t do. … [T]rust me…at any point, you can be on the wrong side of the mob. And if that (violent) mob decides to come your direction, you’re going to need an AR-15… … Handguns don’t intimidate a mob, and shotguns [are] a lot harder to shoot consistently because of the recoil…”

Reason #3:

You need an AR-15 to protect yourself during a national disaster or a SHTF scenario.

“Natural disasters can happen at any moment and happen way more frequently than civil unrest and have a tendency to last longer. After a natural disaster…you’re on your own. If it’s a bad enough or long enough situation, you’ll likely be living in a lawless environment. And criminals love this because people become easy targets. .. Can you imagine how dangerous it’ll be at night, with no power in pitch-black darkness and no police to help you, and there are criminals rampaging through the city looking to take what little you have, but you have to go out and find a loved one or get emergency supplies? You want the best thing possible to protect yourself in that environment…because the police can’t help you.”

Reason #4:

You need an AR-15 because everyone else has them — including criminals.

“There are, at bare minimum, two million ARs in this country. You may not have an AR, but other people do. So ask yourself — do you really want to be the only person without an AR-15, when you’re surrounded by police and criminals [armed with them]?”

Colion states the obvious, which for some reason appears to elude gun control advocates:

“Criminals, by definition, don’t follow laws. And as a result, criminals have all the guns they’re not supposed to have — like the AR-15.”

He’s got a gift for breaking it down:

“Why would you want the fight for your life to be an uneven match? I want what the criminal is trying to use against me or better. So if criminals have AR-15s that they could possibly use against you, then you need an AR-15 [to] fight back against them. This is not rocket science.”

Reason #5:

You need an AR-15 because you don’t trust the government.

And you’re not alone:

“A study from the Pew Research Center found that only two in ten Americans said they trust the government in Washington to do what is right, ‘just about always’ two percent of the time, or ‘most of the time’ nineteen percent of the time. … The study also found that only 29 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say they trust the government just about always or most of the time — which is odd considering that people who ask, ‘Why do you need an AR-15?’ are typically if not always Democrat or Democratic-leaning independents. If the vast majority of Americans don’t trust the government, why would you leave yourself defenseless to the same government you don’t trust?”

The man connects America’s beginnings with a contemporary right to bear arms:

“The founding fathers used their own rifles to win the Revolutionary War against a tyrannical government. They then wrote the Second Amendment to protect the…right to keep and bear arms so that…people of the future could use their own rifles — like they just did — to either be a deterrent…or to fight back against a tyrannical government — foreign or domestic. The most effective tool to do this right now…is the AR-15.”

He concludes with a quote from former Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kosinski, about Americans’ access to ARs in the event of federal tyranny:

“However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.”

Colion makes potent points; will those across the aisle ever hear them? Either way, a large portion of the country will need to first learn what an AR-15 actually is. Might politicians and media members finally admit it’s not a machine gun? Call it less than likely: