Is The AR the Most Popular Rifle in America?

[cybershooters]

http://www.atf.treas.gov/firearms/stats/index.htm

in 2006- just bushmaster and DPMS made over 100,000 rifles.

I think the relevant point is that if you add up all of the AR-15 makers, it's a significantly higher total than any of the big makers, such as Remington, Savage, etc. Of course a lot more AR-15s go to LE than Remingtons for example, but even taking that into account you'd have to say the US civil market for AR-15s is bigger than Remington's market. Which is to say, pretty significant. (Although I'm not sure those stats separate out exports, but as I recall from the export stats it was only a few thousand).

And this is a very important point and a very significant set of stats, because the US Supreme Court has ruled that Congress lacks the power to prohibit firearms that are commonly used and owned by private citizens.

 

[cybershooters]

When was the last time the Swiss were invaded despite being such a small country with a relatively small population? Was it because nobody would dare invade a country where the civilian population was just as equiped as the military? Or was it because of the terrain?

It was because of politics, I do think a lot of the stories gun owners put out about Switzerland are rather mythical.

Switzerland was invaded by Napoleon.

However in the two world wars, especially WW2 it was simply not realistic to invade Switzerland because domestically in Germany it would have gone down like a lead balloon. Lots of Germans go on holiday there and two-thirds of the population speak German, so it would have made about as much sense as Canada invading St Pierre. The Swiss were happy to trade with Germany during the war and at the start they even let troop trains through, so what was the point of invading?

The Swiss have to remain neutral because the francophones lean towards the French and the german speakers lean towards the Germans. As the French and the Germans are usually on opposing sides it would rip the country apart to favour either side.

They even had a referendum a few years ago requiring all schoolchildren to learn two of the national languages because of this.