Washington Post Senior Editor Marc Fisher faced mockery on Thursday for claiming the AR-15 rifle was “invented for Nazi infantrymen.”
Fisher, co-author of a disparaging book titled Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power, claimed in a tweet on Thursday that “Invented for Nazi infantrymen, further developed by the US military, the AR-15 was the Texas school shooter’s weapon of choice….”
The Washington Post senior editor then linked to an article he had written for the Post in 2018 titled “The AR-15: ‘America’s rifle’ or illegitimate killing machine?”
In the article, Fisher claimed “The AR-15 — its initials come not from “assault rifle” but from its original manufacturer, Armalite — is a descendant of the machine guns Nazi infantrymen used against Soviet forces in World War II.”
The attempt to link the American Armalite AR-15 developed by Eugene Stoner to Nazism is regarded as highly fallacious by firearms history expert, and does not appear to considered a legitimate talking point by anyone other than Fisher.
Invented for Nazi infantrymen, further developed by the US military, the AR-15 was the Texas school shooter’s weapon of choice…. https://t.co/Pw3AwI9pbc
— Marc Fisher (@mffisher) May 26, 2022
Fisher goes on to claim “The weapon’s popularity has been enhanced by the AR-15’s regular appearances in hugely popular first-person-shooter video games such as the Call of Duty series, and by its omnipresence in action movies.”
In actuality, Call of Duty titles features fully automatic variants of M-4 and M-16 pattern rifles, which are for military use and require special permits for civilian possession.
The article also claims “many new buyers are coming to the rifles through their love of violent video games.”
Fisher’s tweeted was widely ridiculed and received a heavy ratio, receiving almost 5,000 comments as opposed to barely 150 likes at press time.
Many users noted that they had reported the false claim in the tweet for misinformation.
For those who don't know.
>Civilian AR15s are not assault rifles as they only are semi auto
>Nazis did not design the AR15, American Gun Designer Eugene Stoner did well after WWII.
>It wasn't originally designed for Infantrymen, but auxiliary troops.— 🕎Butters-/k/un🕎 (@TheUnaButters) May 26, 2022
I would report you for misinformation, but they don’t care. If anybody’s reading this: what he is saying is wrong. I am actually going to go as far as to say that this is a lie. It is fake lore.
— NotYourJewishMom (@just_Libert_e) May 26, 2022
You know who also wore trench coats pic.twitter.com/Wnt9zxVrLM
— Cox (@HOLYSMKES) May 26, 2022
The AR15 is a fine rifle, but it did not exist in the 1930s/40s.
— Styxhexenhammer666 (@Styx666Official) May 26, 2022
This isn't even *true!* How did you manage to write an article that is this false? It was created as a derivative of American Eugene Stoner's original design. The OG design was in the late 50s, well after the war, and was considered innovative for it's time. Nothing about Nazis
— Phil (@RealPhillyP) May 26, 2022
Only a Washington Post reporter would get every fact in one tweet wrong.
— Artful Codger, the "Mad Chef" (@ArtfulCodger2) May 26, 2022
Yo, this ratio is really something.
Are you embarrassed? I'd be embarrassed.
— DISSIDENT (@philthatremains) May 26, 2022
