The New Republic experiences that at a new gun industry trade display in Las Vegas, not significantly from the web-site of the deadliest mass taking pictures by an particular person in US record, American gun maker WEE1 Tactical released a new gun identified as the JR-15:
The JR-15 is a .22 Extended Rifle that capabilities like a fashionable sporting rifle, having said that and most importantly its little size, lightweight rugged polymer development and ergonomics are geared in the direction of smaller lovers.
Our target was to develop a actually special shooting system that a Guardian or Mentor can properly use to train a younger enthusiast. The JR-15 is smaller sized, weighs less and has a patented protection.
Weighing in at only 2.5 kilos, the 16-inch barrelled JR-15 is pitched as a child-sized version of the well known AR-15 rifle, however it can be definitely a one-shot. For what it is value, it comes with a “unique” basic safety switch that — according to the business — “requires strength and dexterity to release…thus, introducing a level of security discovered on no other firearm of any size.” And hey, it also comes with a minimal lifetime warranty! Here is a flyer for the gun:
Now, in the curiosity of fair coverage, it truly is only suitable that I share this passage from an report I wrote 5 several years in the past, which I nevertheless keep to be technically real:
Confident, they might appear like badass Rambo weapons, but AR-15s and their ilk are technically no additional deadly than your common wood stock lengthy rifle. Contrary to popular perception, they’re notabsolutely automated machine guns, but fairly shoot a person bullet for every cause pull. They are also a single of the most common guns in the nation, thanks in aspect to their versatility— which suggests they’d be more difficult to get rid of, much too.
Whilst it really is legitimate that AR-15s are a frequent variable in mass shootings, it really is worth remembering that mass shootings only comprise a very small fraction of gun homicides in the US. This makes them no a lot less tragic, of study course. But if a person is hellbent on mass murder, they can do it just as very easily with a semi-computerized handgun.
In reality, handguns are presently dependable for about two-thirds of the gun homicides in the state.
There. I said that. And frankly, I mostly continue to stand by it, if we are basically obtaining a grand but nuanced dialogue about gun violence in The united states.
But I also realize that some 18,000 American small children and teens are killed by guns each god damn yr. And that marketing and advertising child-helpful killing equipment is definitely not likely to help cut down that tragic statistic — and in point will most likely increase the chance of domestic violence incidents involving firearms, which are 1 of the biggest threats from gun violence.
For additional context, I’ll also share one last little bit from MEAWW:
The owner of the firm has been determined as Eric Schmid, who also occurs to very own Schmid Device. He was witnessed advertising the JR-15 in multiple YouTube video clips from SHOT Show 2022. According to a LinkedIn profile, the based businessman has owned Schmid Software given that May 1995. The only other point the profile mentions is that he graduated in 1995 from The University of Utah with a BFA diploma.
Curiously, Schmid Tool’s web-site claims to be a “women-owned family organization,” so it really is not crystal clear how Schmid is related to the organization. The organization specializes in “precision CNC machining and turning expert services” and “custom assembly companies.” Speedy Company’s report on the story claims Wee1 is an offshoot of Schmid Device, which seems to be the situation because both company’s logos are witnessed at SHOT Present on YouTube. A push release also says Schmid Software has been “the firearms industry for about 40 many years,” with around 30 a long time of expertise in supplying “firearms elements to our buyers in the AR-15 industry.”
In my very own experience with gun journalism, that all tracks.
A Gun Trade Demonstrate Is Marketing the “JR-15,” an AR-15 Rifle for Youngsters [Prem Thakker / The New Republic]
