When did civilian AR15s get popular?

[LRRPF52]

My experience was a bit different growing up in CA mostly. I had been shooting since early childhood in the 1970's, but really started shooting regularly once we got back from Germany in 1982, always going out with my dad into the desert to shoot about once a month.

In CA, people had a lot of money, and gun stores were filled with black rifles. I remember frequently visiting local shops to gawk at H&K 91's, 94's, Springfield Armory M1A's, SAR48's (FAL copy), folding stock Mini-14's, Uzi's, Colt SP1's, Colt SP-1 Carbines, and later Colt AR15A2 rifles and carbines. AR15's were already very popular in the mid-1980's in CA. Not so much in the rest of the Country.

It was basically like a Terminator movie set assortment of guns, reflecting a lot of cinema-based representations of what was out there. Before all the gun ban crazed lunacy from Leninist dirtbag politicians, people liked to be able to buy things they saw in the movies in CA, and there wasn't the stigma associated with them like in most of the rest of the Nation. Nevada was similar, with SOF-related shooting events, and a general sense of, "We're out here in the middle of nowhere, doing our own thing, and nobody knows or cares."

For CA, once the San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre happened in 1984, things started to change. In the mid-1980's, the only available AK's for civilian purchase were from Finland (not really AK's, since they are built extremely well, and are of superb quality), and US-made Mitchell's. ChiCom Type 56 and Norinco semi-auto's started showing up as imports in the late 1980's, and people began buying them since they were so cheap.

The political climate really gained critical mass in 1989, when Patrick Purdy shot some kids at a school in Stockton with a ChiCom AK, and the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989 was the result for CA, a major blow to freedom in the State. I remember the NRA working very hard against the legislation, doing everything they could to alert people to the reality of the likely outcome of that proposed law, and a lot of the fudds didn't care, since it didn't affect their wood and steel rifles.

Sales picked up bigtime, and prices doubled overnight during the grace period before the legislation could take effect. People in surrounding States and the Nation started taking notice, and changing their buying habits. By the time the Clinton AWB came along, the market was already primed somewhat for increased sales of AR15's especially.

A lot of people who would probably never have considered buying an evil black assault rifle death machine child-slayer started buying AR15's.

Then they started shooting them, and realizing, "Hey, this is way more fun than grandpa's sporterized .30-06. I want another one."

Then they let their friends shoot them, who then had to have one. The legislation had the exact opposite effect of its claimed intentions, which was to reduce the number of inherently evil devices in circulation. Then the Democrat party suffered the most brutal defeat in the House and Senate in 1994, right after passing that colossal abortion legislation, as well as trying to stuff Hillarycare through.

[Jmanwit]

LRRPF52, that post was brilliant. I, fortunately, grew up in a law enforcement household in Orange County, so while there was still heavy legislation, I had plenty of opportunity to shoot these kinds of weapons, as my father had pre-ban ARs, not to mention shooting on the LE ranges. I was fortunate enough to begin building the rifles at 16, and sparked the love affair I've had since.

I now live in Tennessee, or as I call it, Free America. When I left California and arrived here, my car was still full of crap and I hadn't unloaded the U-haul before the Bullet Button and AK-RadLock were off and in a spare parts bin, never to be seen again. It felt good.

[Pilot1]

re-post

[Firefly]

Here's my own look through the wayback machine:

As a youth, I recall a lot of adult males at the time (early 30s to 40s) really didn't seem to care about AR-15s. It still had a stigma. ..maybe not so much unreliability but more it seemed to remind people of the service or war. In short, no fun.

Let's not kid ourselves. ARs get dirty. And no, they aren't fun to clean. It's something you have to just accept and do.

But....that's not to say they didn't like guns. Man oh man were the 80s a time to be a tag a long kid. Beretta 92s were the thing, what's a Glock? (Die Hard 2 hadn't come out yet), Mini 14s seemed prevalent but the HKs and AR-180s seemed more cool, it seemed that everyone had an M1 carbine. I can remember the first semi auto rifles I ever shot were an M1 carbine and an AR-180. No tactical crap. No anything. Just a buncha guys in jeans, overalls, and a few in Vietnam War woodland trousers with Miller Lite beers shooting cans and old frigidaires. This was actually the Mid Atlantic even. Chinese AKs were around but we weren't communist and anything chinese is junk (just recalling what I was told). It just seemed that nobody wanted an AR-15.

Flash Forward to the 90s. There's this weird gun I've read about. CAR-15 on Steroids. Soldier of Fortune says it is the XM4. Hmm...interesting. First long arm I buy is a FAL clone and I like it a lot. I figure two magazines are all I'll ever need.

But really I only care about TV, girls, how Friends "understood" me while Seinfeld was about middle aged geezers, a sporty car, and how college is a drag. The only other gun I get is a weird Dragunov. Got it cheap. Sold it for class money. Didn't like shooting it and the ammo stunk. Probably should have kept it purely as an investment.

Now here's where I reveal how out of touch I am....

It is 2000. Nobody is worried about anything. We survived Y2K...the Rapture didn't happen....New York City is just another crowded berg. I see it. The M4. I see it for about 699. Never cared about ARs. I want it solely because it is the Soldier of Fortune gun. I ask to look at it. "Hey man...this stock doesn't fold! This barrel has a weird thing on it!"(yes I said 'fold'...yeesh)

'Well kid...it has to be ban compliant.' Ban Compliant?! What's that?! I thought you could have anything you want unless it was full auto. Nope.

Oh well....I buy it anyways. It was a Bushmaster carbine with the ugly Y comp and....I love it. Hey, this is cool. It eats most ammo I buy at Walmart. The FAL STG 58 and the Bushmaster accompany me often to the range. I got a few 20 dollar 30 rounders at a gun show. Refreshing in a world of 90 dollar Glock Magazines and 150 dollar Sig magazines. Eh, what do I care? Smith 586 and 1911 are the only pistols I care about. Only need the five mags I inherited that were brought home from Vietnam.

Flash Forward. The world has changed. I'm in a professional career and formally taught on the M16, a Smith 4586, shotgun, and later the MP5. Now I learn how to shoot an AR. Now I learn how little I knew. Hey, didja know you can get an M4? Yeah a Colt. Don't need a Bushmaster. Stock collapses and everything. Just need letterhead. Need a letter too for the Sig magazines for the Sig I bought as a back up. The Smith is horrible. And Glock?!
That's for homeboys! Get a real man's gun! P226 or 228.

Flash Forward a lot more years.
ARs are all I shoot. Same with Glock. Long sold the Bushmaster. Went on a shopping binge after 2004. Never was that internet savvy. Some old pre bans I happened into I kept. FAL is gone.

Would love to tell you that I was forward thinking and prescient. No, just another dumb young person occupied in minutiae to care about my civil rights. I rambled and got a little Wonder Years there but that was that point in time as I saw it.

For perspective, things are not great now but a LOT better than they were. The AR has gone from burden to trusted tool. Most prior service guys I know or work with have at least one. Usually set up how they had it. The foreign pre bans are gone but....I see that as a side effect of natural selection.

But if you want an AR now you are spoiled for choice. But in the 90s ammo was stupid cheap. Can't have everything.

ETA I really miss the 308 battle pack surplus and how I could have gotten a complete G3A3 kit with barrel. I also miss that Bushmaster. FAL too. On the AR side I still have a bunch of British sa80 mags and while I have read they weren't so good, I still have mine and use them. Oh how naive I was to think 8 AR magazines was 'more than enough'