The AR-15 is the most popular rifle in America today. Estimates put the total of privately owned modern sporting rifles upwards of 40 million, which would clearly meet the “common use” standard the Supreme Court says qualifies weapons for protection under the Second Amendment. Yet because mass murderers like the “transgender” biological woman in Nashville sometimes choose this or a similar weapon for the commission of heinous evil, leftists relish in attributing that evil to the tool rather than the perpetrator.

So let’s focus for just a moment on the facts and the truth about the AR-15.

It is a relatively small-caliber but high-velocity semiautomatic rifle, which means it fires only one round for every trigger pull. It was developed in the late 1950s by Armalite, hence the AR designation, which does not stand for “assault rifle.”

A true assault rifle is something like the M4A1 carbine, which is a military service rifle with select-fire — i.e., fully automatic — capability. While the AR-15 and the M4 look similar, the function is different.

Fully automatic machine guns have been effectively banned since 1934 and again in 1986, so, despite their prevalence in Hollywood’s violence-glorifying entertainment, few are actually “on the streets,” and virtually none are used in the commission of crimes.

The AR-15’s modular build allows practically countless modifications, such as scopes, lights, straps, and the like, so it’s incredibly versatile. It’s also very easy to use — its function reduces recoil, which along with its light weight makes it easier for smaller and less-trained people to fire accurately. All of that combines to make the AR-15 an outstanding self- or home-defense weapon.

In the late 1980s, the Left concocted the term “assault weapon” in order to frighten people about such firearms. It might be argued that this scaremongering helped make the gun more attractive to mass murderers, who desperately want to be perceived as powerful and fearsome.

By 1994, Democrats had successfully whipped up enough of a frenzy to pass the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. The law banned some semiautomatic firearms with certain cosmetic features, none of which made those guns more deadly. Predictably, the Justice Department concluded that the law did nothing to reduce crime. Rifles of any type generally account for fewer murders than hands and feet.

Nevertheless, Joe Biden still crows about his “accomplishment” in helping to pass the decade-long ban, and he claims that crime spiked after it sunsetted in 2004. His claim is false. In inverse proportion to the rise in concealed carry permits, crime gradually fell — until 2020, when culturally Marxist Democrats exploited the death of George Floyd to divide everyone by race.

Yet because of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and other copycats over the years — like yesterday’s tragic assault in Nashville — Democrats repeatedly turn their sights on certain rifles. (Never mind their use in preventing or stopping some of those shootings.)

Ironically, while Democrats including Biden routinely refer to AR-15s as “weapons of war,” Biden also has repeatedly threatened the American people, mockingly insisting they’ll need F-15s or nuclear weapons, not just AR-15s, to truly challenge the federal government.

All of that setup brings us to The Washington Post, which spent seven months putting together a visually impressive and emotionally evocative series of articles against the AR-15.

It’s tough to briefly sum up the primary 7,000-word diatribe, other than to say the entire project is meant to horrify readers and drum up opposition to such guns. The overarching points are these: The AR-15 was supposedly never intended for civilian use, and it didn’t gain popularity until gun manufacturers, desperate for revenue, began furiously marketing it while vilifying Barack Obama and other Democrats. The video game industry also popularized such rifles in profitable first-person shooter games.

By the Post’s telling, the only reason Democrats and even Donald Trump failed to ban AR-15s is because of political pressure from the NRA and other rabid gun activists who were callously unmoved by the intense grief of families who had lost loved ones. To the Post, it’s all profit and toxic masculinity.

The Washington Post published its series against the AR-15 just hours before a deranged and evil woman took six more lives in Nashville. No doubt the advocates posing as journalists will feel some vindication for that timing. Yet the far bigger story remains the often deliberate degradation of American culture and politics that has made such mass murders more commonplace.

(Updated)

Editor’s note: Reports indicate the Nashville assailant came armed with a KelTec SUB2000 Carbine Rifle, a Grunt .300 Blackout Rifle, and a Smith & Wesson M&P9 Shield EZ.