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An Illinois gun manufacturer has unveiled an AR-15 style rifle for children it has called the JR-15 and marketed it with the tag line 'It operates just like mom and dad's gun.'
The assault rifle, whose name stands for Junior-15, is 20 percent smaller than a regular AR-15 and weighs 2.3lbs, but its maker, Wee1 Tactical, promises that the firearm packs the same deadly punch as its full-sized version.
The .22-caliber long rifle was introduced last month at the SHOT show in Las Vegas, which is billed as the nation's largest shooting, hunting and outdoor industry trade show.
The event was sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms industry that is based in Newtown, Connecticut, which, incidentally, was the site of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that left 20 children and six adults dead.
Wee 1 Tactical's promotional material says that its pint-sized rifle, which bears a logo displaying a skull and crossbones with a pacifier, is designed to 'safely help adults introduce children to the shooting sports.'
The 30-inch-long rifle is semiautomatic and comes equipped with a tamper-resistant safety that needs to be pulled out 'with some force' and rotated before it can fire.
'We believe that this introduction early on will produce a deep respect for firearms that continue and last for a lifetime of safety,' the makers of the JR-15 said in a press release.
Gun-control advocates have reacted with horror to the unveiling of the diminutive AR-15 style rifle geared towards children, especially given a recent spike in gun violence at schools, reported Fast Company.
Between August and December 2021, there were 136 shootings on school campuses, reported the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
JR-15's adult version, the AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle, was used in 11 mass shootings in the US since 2012, including at Sandy Hook, in Las Vegas and at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
'There’s been youth shooting guns for 80 years, but there’s never been a youth AR-15,' Ryan Busse, senior advisor at Giffords, a gun violence-prevention groups co-founded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, told Fast Company. 'I’ve never seen one that’s just an egregiously tactical, offensive weapon of war.'
Josh Sugarmann, founder and executive director of Violence Policy Center, told the website that while there have been other weapons manufacturers that have marketed guns towards children, Wee1 Tactics is the first company to create a kids' version of an AR-15.
'I think what makes the WEE1 JR-15 really just so horrific is the fact that it’s saying the quiet part out loud,' he said. 'There’s no shame.'
California Gov Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, expressed his shock and dismay at Wee 1 Tactics, and called on conservative politicians receiving support from the National Rifle Association to condemn the JR-15.
'This is VILE,' Newsom tweeted this week. 'A skull & crossbones with a pacifier on weapon of war. Made to look "cute" to appeal to kids.'
An Illinois gun manufacturer has unveiled an AR-15 style rifle for children it has called the JR-15 and marketed it with the tag line 'It operates just like mom and dad's gun.'
The assault rifle, whose name stands for Junior-15, is 20 percent smaller than a regular AR-15 and weighs 2.3lbs, but its maker, Wee1 Tactical, promises that the firearm packs the same deadly punch as its full-sized version.
The .22-caliber long rifle was introduced last month at the SHOT show in Las Vegas, which is billed as the nation's largest shooting, hunting and outdoor industry trade show.
The event was sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms industry that is based in Newtown, Connecticut, which, incidentally, was the site of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that left 20 children and six adults dead.
Wee 1 Tactical's promotional material says that its pint-sized rifle, which bears a logo displaying a skull and crossbones with a pacifier, is designed to 'safely help adults introduce children to the shooting sports.'
The 30-inch-long rifle is semiautomatic and comes equipped with a tamper-resistant safety that needs to be pulled out 'with some force' and rotated before it can fire.
'We believe that this introduction early on will produce a deep respect for firearms that continue and last for a lifetime of safety,' the makers of the JR-15 said in a press release.
Gun-control advocates have reacted with horror to the unveiling of the diminutive AR-15 style rifle geared towards children, especially given a recent spike in gun violence at schools, reported Fast Company.
Between August and December 2021, there were 136 shootings on school campuses, reported the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
JR-15's adult version, the AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle, was used in 11 mass shootings in the US since 2012, including at Sandy Hook, in Las Vegas and at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
'There’s been youth shooting guns for 80 years, but there’s never been a youth AR-15,' Ryan Busse, senior advisor at Giffords, a gun violence-prevention groups co-founded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, told Fast Company. 'I’ve never seen one that’s just an egregiously tactical, offensive weapon of war.'
Josh Sugarmann, founder and executive director of Violence Policy Center, told the website that while there have been other weapons manufacturers that have marketed guns towards children, Wee1 Tactics is the first company to create a kids' version of an AR-15.
'I think what makes the WEE1 JR-15 really just so horrific is the fact that it’s saying the quiet part out loud,' he said. 'There’s no shame.'
California Gov Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, expressed his shock and dismay at Wee 1 Tactics, and called on conservative politicians receiving support from the National Rifle Association to condemn the JR-15.
'This is VILE,' Newsom tweeted this week. 'A skull & crossbones with a pacifier on weapon of war. Made to look "cute" to appeal to kids.'
