Great piece by Jon Wiener at The Nation:
Syed Farook’s Arsenal Is As American as Apple Pie
How unusual is it for a gun owner to have two AR-15 assault rifles and 2,500 rounds of rifle ammunition—the “arsenal” police found in the possession of Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik? Many in the media say it suggests a level of planning typical of terrorists. But, in fact, millions of Americans have that kind of “arsenal” at home. The AR-15 is the most popular gun in America—around 8 million have been sold. Two thousand five hundred rounds of ammo for the AR-15 seems horrifying to an anti-gun, middle-class liberal like me—that’s enough bullets to kill 2,500 people!—but, in fact, ammo is sold in 1,000-round boxes, and it’s not unusual for gun owners to buy several boxes when the price is low.
I asked Marc Cooper about it—he’s an award-winning journalist and a friend who’s also a gun person. Two thousand five hundred rounds? “Believe it or not, these are modest amounts of ammo,” he told me. “A gun hobbyist, a target shooter, can easily go through 500 rounds in one two-hour visit to the range. The amount found in this guy’s apartment in no way by itself indicates anything strange.”
Another friend said, “It’s like buying 48 rolls of toilet paper when you go to Costco.”
If possessing two AR-15s and 2,500 rounds of ammo makes you a terror suspect, then we need to investigate several million Americans, most of whom are older white men — and Republicans.
Pipe bombs, of course, are different; most Americans do not make pipe bombs at home.
Ownership is a matter of personal preference - I tend more towards shotguns and unusual stuff. Still, 2,500 rounds is not unusual. They last pretty much forever and common sizes are great for barter as well as use.
PLEASE NOTE - The following was not American as Apple Pie: Modifying a gun to allow for full automatic operation (machine gun) is very much illegal and adding the several high-capacity magazine options is illegal in California so the terrorist's armory was an unusual one. The Pipe Bombs and IEDs violated both State and Federal Laws and are a crime against humanity - these devices murder and maim innocent civilians. People need to focus on those facts rather than the other 99.999% of us peaceful gun owners...
