The “AR-style” semi-automatic rifle, the weapon law enforcement officials have said was recovered from the scene of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Saturday, is one of America’s most popular, recognisable and notorious weapons.
Closely related to the fully automatic military combat M-16 rifle, the AR-15 has been used in a number of recent mass shootings in the US, including the Las Vegas attack in October 2017, which killed 60 people, and the anti-LGBTQ+ attack that killed five people in Colorado Springs in November 2022.
