I was in my 20's,
I'd say probably about the age of 22 when I first bought my assault rifles.
I've always just liked the way they look, they look like a gun is supposed to,
they look menacing, they look authorative.
So therefore I would buy one.
>> One in 20 Americans own AR-15s.
And if you're wondering what does that demographic consist of,
what are some of the other details about these individuals?
Well, we've got a great story for you,
including some data coming from the Washington Post.
They published a collection of video testimonies from AR-15 owners who
explained to the rest of us why these assault weapons or
assault rifles are so important to them.
Now, let's watch more video of this and
then I'll fill you in on some of the data that we've learned about.
>> It's important for
me to own an AR style gun because the first thing is defense.
I wanna be able to protect my spouse,
my puppy dogs, my property and myself.
And so that would be the first part.
The second part is that it's fun to go to the range and do some target shooting.
>> I have everything from handguns to hunting rifles.
And my husband one year decided I should have an AR-15 for Christmas.
So, that's when I got an AR-15.
I don't think up to that point I'd even shot one, so
I had no idea that they would be fun to shoot.
So that's, I found out afterwards that they are fun [LAUGH].
>> I had some rifles already that I had for deer hunting.
And I was chatting to a guy next to me who had a AR and I asked him why he had
an AR and he said, because it's the best thing to hunt pigs with.
By far so horse in texts are atrocious.
The government pays trappers to go and trap them, right?
And they're basically pretty much overrunning the place.
>> Anybody wants to hurt somebody at any point in time, they're gonna do it,
regardless of whether they have an assault rifle, whether they have a single shot or
they have nothing but a brick in their hand.
>> I don't think you need an AR-15 to either defend yourself or to hunt pigs.
But nonetheless, I mean, it is interesting to see,
to put a face behind something we talk about so often on the show,
because of how common mass shootings are in the country.
And [SOUND], it's tough because it humanizes the issue, right?
You see these people and they seem like lovely people.
>> Do they?
>> I mean, I think they do but they just love their AR-15s and
they love their AR-15s more than doing something to at least
mitigate the amount of death that occurs in this country from mass shootings,
as a result of their use of AR-15s and assault rifles.
>> Yeah, so guys, first of all, we're screwed AR-15s,
there's about 20 million of them in the country now.
What are you gonna do?
Ok, so 31% of Americans own guns, which look, if you're living in America,
you think that's normal, maybe even low for every other country right now.
They're like, what?
[LAUGH] A third of the citizens own weapons.
That's crazy.
In many other nations and certainly in the developed nations,
that it's like a fraction.
It's a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage that own guns.
So the idea that every third person has a weapon on them or at home,
is just mental to the rest of the world as well as it should be.
And 6% of Americans own the AR-15 or a weapon like it.
Man, 6% like I said, there's 20 million of them out there.
So we're told, but why do they own?
It is an interesting question.
That's what we're looking at here.
And I'm kidding around about their looks,
like I know the first guy looks stereotypically right when you know,
that kind of AR-15 guy- >> Talks about his puppy dogs and
how he wants to.
>> That was the other guy.
>> I see, okay.
>> But it's okay.
Look, who cares what they look like?
It's ridiculous, by the way yes, of course there's diversity in there.
Yes, of course they're mainly white and Republican in rural areas, and
all the stereotypes that you would imagine.
But there's plenty of black folks and women, et cetera [INAUDIBLE].
>> In fact, I want to go to the next video before we continue,
because it isn't just white people who buy AR-15s.
In fact, after the election of Donald Trump in 2016,
the person you're about to hear from felt the need to buy an assault rifle.
Let's watch.
>> Most people would never know that I own a gun.
I'm not one to be boss or pose as macho man with a gun or weapon.
I possess the weapon strictly for my own defense.
And I also enjoy target shooting as well.
Growing up in the South is surely the white
supremacy issue is no new thing for me.
I've experienced it throughout my life.
The blatant openness of racism, the resurgence of racism,
xenophobia and all these issues that we suffered under the Trump administration.
That prompted me more than anything else to see the level
of violence that people were willing to commit openly.
I see so much that reflects that era that I grew up in and I felt like it was,
it would be a good thing just to be prepared to defend my community.
>> And in a way, I mean, obviously I understand where he's coming from,
but it's fighting violent rhetoric with potential,
actual physical violence and weaponry, right?
And so I don't begrudge him at all for feeling unsafe and wanting to have
something to protect himself, in an increasingly terrifying political climate.
But, I wish it didn't get to that point where people felt like they need,
like I never had any interest in owning a gun, right?
I always felt safe.
I thought everything was fine, and then the climate changed around me and
it wasn't because of Trump, it was more because of increasing crime
related to the pandemic and everything like that.
You're hearing incredibly scary stories within your own neighborhood.
And so you feel like what do I do if someone breaks into my home in the middle
of the night, how do I protect myself?
So I understand the need to have a weapon to protect yourself.
But we're talking about, and we're watching what I assume are law abiding
citizens, and I have no problem with law abiding citizens having weapons.
But do you need an AR-15?
Is that really necessary?
>> No, you don't need one at all.
Okay, so let me explain.
There's nuance in that answer though.
So first of all, look, Alfred looks like a lovely person.
Hard not to empathize with him, especially his stated reasons for
why he feels unsafe.
But by the way, if you're Republican woman and you live in a rural area, or
an urban area, or where, or suburban, whatever you feel unsafe,
I get it, I get it and I'm gonna come back to that in a second.
We, I just read an article recently about Chicago and have some citizens say,
look this and they're black, right?
And they say I wanted a gun cuz Chicago is unsafe.
There's criminals everywhere, right?
And so, if I had to start over again in America,
I would do what every other developed nation does and
greatly limit guns, cuz it is clearly making us less safe.
But that ship has sailed.
So we're not having a conversation about guns right now.
We're having a conversation about assault weapons,
assault weapons that can kill many people much quicker, okay?
And mow down our kids and everyone else and you've seen it happen.
So, whereas I might have sympathy for the woman, or Alfred, or
a right wing dude with a big goatee, right?
If he wants to protect himself, his family, his puppy, etc,
you don't need an AR-15 for that.
You definitely, definitely don't need one.
What it does is it more efficiently kills a lot more people,
like is a gang of 15 people about to break into your house and
you need an assault weapon to hit them all at once.
No, unless there's some sort of weirdo CIA-FBI agent that's not gonna
happen, okay?
And look, there's three main reasons that they explain that people buy their AR-15s.
So about a third is self defense and
I'm summarizing here cuz there's a lot of little things, right?
And then about a third is fun or other, okay?
And about a third is some sort of right wing talking point.
Government tyranny, I need to, you know, you never know [INAUDIBLE]-
>> Lat's take a look at the graph-
>> Let's show them.
>> We have a graph that shows you all of the reasons why people own AR-15s.
So at the very top, you see, self defense, protecting yourself,
your family, your property.
And then you have other categories like it's fun to shoot,
target shooting in case law and order breaks down.
It's important to who I am as an American was really interesting to me.
So 36% cite that as a major reason for
their AR-15 purchase- >> See,
that's a culture war kind of talking point.
That's a right wing talking point.
So there's left wingers who own AR-15s, there's independents who own it less so
than Republicans, but they generally don't say it's important to them for
how they define themselves in America.
So let's go to the next graph,
because that will break it down based on political affiliation.
And as you can tell when it comes to AR-15 owners,
41 of them identify as Republican, only 10% as Democrats.
46%, the majority of, you know,
if you break it down in this category are independents.
And so I thought that was really interesting.
I did not expect that.
>> The plurality, yeah.
>> The plurality.
>> So, but by the way,
stay on that guys notice one other thing not related to this story.
The number at the bottom, that's the adult population overall in the US,
not having to do with guns or AR-15s.
That's just who's in those categories that has changed massively during my lifetime.
Independence used to be a tiny number.
Now look at it, only 27% Republican to only 27% Democrat in the country.
Now, the biggest number by far is 39% that say independent and
7% that say other or none.
So that's a huge political development.
It makes a big, big difference.
Winning over independence is a very real thing now.
>> I would love to learn more about that though, because I think that the political
climate has led to people no longer identifying as either Democrat or
Republican, and instead wanting to register as independents or identify-
>> Yes because we hate both parties.
>> Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
So I think that plays a role in that larger percentage of.
>> Right, it's just another thing that the media never covers because they
love both parties, instead of what the American people actually think.
Okay, back to the AR-15s.
So, look to me, I think the whole, I'm going to fight the cops and
the military in the woods and it's my God given natural
right to be able to have a weapon to kill you all or whatever.
It's nonsense insanity, right?
But it doesn't really matter what the reason is, even if it's fun, even if it's,
the only thing that's legitimate to me is security and we just discuss that, right?
But if you think it's fun, I hear you.
And by the way, I've shot assault weapons in a firing range.
It is kind of fun, Right?
Does that little bit of fun justify all of this murder and
mayhem that's going on in the country?
You're not the ones doing it, I get it.
Every gun owner thinks, well, I wouldn't do it.
But yes, but if you give it to 31% of the country,
guns everywhere, you give assault weapons to 6% of the country,
some percentage of them are gonna use them to kill us.
And it's not worth your hobby, or your fun, or your nonsense [INAUDIBLE].
>> Other just quick statistics that I thought were super interesting.
Some of, some of these are incredibly surprising.
So, 81% of AR-15 owners are male.
That is not surprising to me whatsoever.
28% of AR-15 owners live in rural areas of the country,
whereas 48% live in suburban areas and 24% live in urban areas.
47% say that they live in the south.
So 47% of the AR-15 owners in the country- >> And that is wildly over representative.
>> And 74%, this also doesn't really surprise me of AR-15 owners are white.
67% happen to do not have a college degree.
72% did not serve in the military, and
56% of AR-15 owners make over $100,000 per year.
So, the average cost of an AR-15 is anywhere between $400 to $2,000.
If you're wondering what the cost is, the guns are not cheap.
And so it doesn't surprise me that those higher in the, you know,
salary area definitely are more likely to own these kinds of weapons.
>> Yeah, richer people have it because they can afford it.
Last thing is, you know, look, there's two contexts that you, you normally see guns
in the news, one is mass shootings and the other is urban crime, right?
But what the numbers show you is actually in urban areas,
there's less guns than there are in rural, and suburban areas, and proportionally.
And black people own less guns than white people own proportionally.
So some of the stereotypes that you see on TV are not at all true.
So, but overall again, I get that a lot of people want guns for security and
I wish that ship hadn't sailed, but it has, but we're not talking about that.
We're talking about automatic weapons that kill a lot of people at once.
And there is no justification for that.
You can get other types of guns to protect yourself and your family.
And yes, you're a puppy.
>> And keep in mind that 67% of the mass shootings that occurred
in 2022 happened with the use of an AR-15.
So, anyone who claims that banning assault style rifles would have no impact on
mass shootings is just either uninformed and doesn't know the facts or
is straight up lying.
That's just the fact.