{"id":284,"date":"2009-05-21T10:46:25","date_gmt":"2009-05-21T14:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=284"},"modified":"2009-05-21T10:46:25","modified_gmt":"2009-05-21T14:46:25","slug":"new-rifle-from-ruger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/new-rifle-from-ruger\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW RIFLE FROM RUGER"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the National Rifle Association\u2019s annual convention last week, Ruger announced their new SR556 rifle<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s an AR15 clone, chambered for the 5.56mm NATO\/.223 Remington.\u00a0 The \u201cSR,\u201d of course, stands for Sturm, Ruger.<\/p>\n

The buzz on the Internet gun boards is one of disappointment. Ho, hum, another drop in the great sea of cloned AR15 semiautomatic rifles.\u00a0 And, of outrage: \u201c$1995 manufacturer\u2019s suggested retail price?!? They\u2019re out of their minds!!\u201d<\/p>\n

I have to respectfully disagree with both assessments.<\/p>\n

The founder of the company, the late William B. Ruger, Sr., was a friend of mine.\u00a0 He positioned his namesake company as a leading manufacturer of robust, high quality, high value firearms that were, for the most part, \u201csporting arms.\u201d\u00a0 Bill garnered the lasting enmity of hard core gun rights activists many years ago when he supported a ten-round magazine capacity cap, long before the Bill Clinton Assault Weapons Ban, which thankfully sunsetted in 2004.\u00a0 I discussed it with him, and disagreed to his face. He told me he did it because he dealt face-to-face with the elected officials on Capitol Hill, and they told him that the anti-gunners were presenting themselves as the voice of reason and compromise, while the pro-gun people were seen in Congress as intractable and not giving an inch.<\/p>\n

The introduction of this rifle by Sturm, Ruger strikes me as a positive turnaround in a number of ways that go beyond the hardware.\u00a0 It follows the introduction of their tiny, pocket size LCP .380 concealed carry pistol and the reinstatement last year of sales to the general public of 20-round magazines for their popular Mini-14 .223 rifles. I see that as a tacit admission that, yes, defensive firearms and not just hunting or target guns are OK for ordinary people to own and use, dammit.<\/p>\n

A few years ago another major player in the hunting\/target rifle field, Remington, introduced their own AR15 clone, the R15, which they sell as a hunting rifle. (Remington is owned by Cerberus, which also encompasses two major AR15 manufacturers, Bushmaster and DPMS.) In a time when our new President has blatantly announced that he would like to ban such \u201cassault rifles,\u201d the Remington and now the Ruger introduction of AR15s signals a growing public acceptance of a paradigm shift that says even more convincingly, \u201cIt\u2019s OK to have these rifles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Second Amendment isn\u2019t about duck hunting or target shooting.\u201d\u00a0 I personally believe every law-abiding citizen has a right to have these guns. But it helps our argument when it is realized that the AR15 is the gun that for years has been winning the National rifle championships at Camp Perry, Ohio, and has been accepted as an ideal tool for eradicating large fields of disease-bearing prairie dogs, and for humanely destroying marauding coyotes.\u00a0 And for that alone I say, \u201cGood for Ruger!\u201d<\/p>\n

As to the price, careful analysis shows that it\u2019s not really unreasonable.\u00a0 First, this is a piston-action AR, which historically has cost significantly more than the original gas-operated Stoner design. Second, it comes with pricey, top-quality components such as MagPul magazines (high capacity, thank you very much, and three per rifle) and premier grade BUIS (back-up iron sights) from Troy Industries. Couple that with the fact that even in today\u2019s sellers\u2019 market, Rugers generally go out the gun shop door for less than MSRP. May not be the bargain of the century, but you\u2019ll get good value received.<\/p>\n

I hope to have my hands on one of these rifles next month. If that works out, I\u2019ll let all y\u2019all know how it performs.<\/p>\n

\"SR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the National Rifle Association\u2019s annual convention last week, Ruger announced their new SR556 rifle.\u00a0 It\u2019s an AR15 clone, chambered for the 5.56mm NATO\/.223 Remington.\u00a0 The \u201cSR,\u201d of course, stands for Sturm, Ruger. The buzz on the Internet gun boards is one of disappointment. Ho, hum, another drop in the great sea of cloned AR15 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-firearms"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}