RPF0534-Friendly_Advice_To_Help_You_Buy_Your_First_AR15

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00:00:31.000 | Welcome to Radical Personal Finance,

00:00:32.000 | the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge,

00:00:34.000 | skills, inspiration, and encouragement you need

00:00:36.000 | to live a rich and meaningful life now,

00:00:38.000 | while also building a plan for financial freedom

00:00:40.000 | in 10 years or less.

00:00:42.000 | My name is Joshua, and I am your host,

00:00:43.000 | and today I'm gonna give you some practical advice

00:00:46.000 | on how to buy an AR-15 and not get taken.

00:00:50.000 | (laughs)

00:00:51.000 | How's that for wading into the fires of current controversy?

00:00:54.000 | But frankly, AR-15s are wonderful guns,

00:00:57.000 | and I think you should have one

00:00:59.000 | for reasons that I have enumerated elsewhere

00:01:01.000 | in terms of the moral and philosophical arguments.

00:01:05.000 | Of course, it's your money,

00:01:06.000 | but it's hard to see how you can go wrong

00:01:08.000 | with going ahead and parting with some of it

00:01:10.000 | to purchase an AR-15 for yourself,

00:01:12.000 | and I thought you might enjoy a little bit

00:01:14.000 | of straightforward discussion on how to do that.

00:01:17.000 | So I've got my buddy Mike.

00:01:18.000 | Mike, welcome to Radical Personal Finance.

00:01:19.000 | - Thanks, glad to be here.

00:01:21.000 | - My friend Mike is a, I don't know,

00:01:24.000 | do you call yourself a gun nut?

00:01:25.000 | - Absolutely, self-labeled gun nut.

00:01:28.000 | - Some gun people hate that term, and some don't,

00:01:32.000 | but I'll call you a gun nut,

00:01:33.000 | and more specifically, I would call you an AR nut,

00:01:36.000 | because of all the people that I know,

00:01:39.000 | I don't know of anybody that's put more time and thought

00:01:41.000 | into specifically the AR, what's called the AR platform.

00:01:46.000 | So let's start by talking about

00:01:48.000 | what an AR-15 actually is,

00:01:51.000 | and then we'll move into why buying one.

00:01:54.000 | So what is an AR-15?

00:01:56.000 | - AR-15 would be a general term,

00:02:00.000 | not sure if it actually has a technical definition,

00:02:02.000 | but it's a pretty widely accepted general term

00:02:05.000 | that describes a firearm design

00:02:08.000 | that originated, let's call it the Vietnam era,

00:02:11.000 | and became well-known.

00:02:14.000 | It started becoming issued to the US military

00:02:17.000 | in that period, and then has basically,

00:02:20.000 | in various variations, has been the standard rifle

00:02:23.000 | for the United States infantrymen ever since.

00:02:26.000 | And along the way, I'm not up on all the details

00:02:31.000 | of exactly what happened when,

00:02:33.000 | but basically, they started using the same design

00:02:38.000 | for civilian use, and it's developed quite a bit.

00:02:42.000 | It's actually, the civilian versions

00:02:44.000 | are much more advanced now,

00:02:46.000 | in terms of the technical advancements,

00:02:48.000 | than the military versions.

00:02:49.000 | The military's pretty slow to adopt new weapons,

00:02:52.000 | but essentially, it's the same weapon,

00:02:55.000 | with the only distinction being full-auto

00:02:58.000 | in the military versus semi-auto in civilians.

00:03:00.000 | - If you were to go back and research the history,

00:03:02.000 | in the military, I guess it was the M16,

00:03:04.000 | probably A1 was the first one,

00:03:05.000 | and then it came out to the A2.

00:03:06.000 | But if you go back and you look at Vietnam,

00:03:08.000 | you'll see the guys carrying around

00:03:09.000 | the big old black carry handle on the top,

00:03:11.000 | they're M16s.

00:03:12.000 | And then the civilian version of that

00:03:14.000 | came out as the AR-15,

00:03:15.000 | and there are different variants of that today.

00:03:18.000 | But it really was a revolutionary design,

00:03:21.000 | where, in terms of rifles,

00:03:23.000 | there was a major change in military history,

00:03:27.000 | as far as why the US military went away

00:03:30.000 | from a larger caliber, heavier,

00:03:32.000 | what's called a battle rifle.

00:03:34.000 | The AR-15 or the M16 are not considered

00:03:36.000 | to be a battle rifle.

00:03:37.000 | So there's a whole kind of interesting side road

00:03:40.000 | to that discussion.

00:03:41.000 | But when it came out in the civilian market,

00:03:43.000 | it has, in many ways,

00:03:45.000 | revolutionized the rifle marketplace.

00:03:48.000 | That's why it is the most popular

00:03:50.000 | firearm rifle that's sold

00:03:52.000 | in the United States of America.

00:03:54.000 | And I would say,

00:03:55.000 | how would you characterize why it's so popular?

00:03:57.000 | I would say, one, it's modular.

00:03:59.000 | - Right.

00:04:00.000 | What's really special about it

00:04:02.000 | is not so much,

00:04:05.000 | in some ways, it was ahead of its time

00:04:08.000 | when it was designed,

00:04:10.000 | and there are better designs out by now.

00:04:14.000 | But what makes it what it is today

00:04:17.000 | is the fact that, of course,

00:04:19.000 | for the first period of time after it was designed,

00:04:22.000 | there were patents and stuff like that.

00:04:24.000 | And then at a certain point,

00:04:25.000 | patents expired,

00:04:27.000 | and what they call the military specifications

00:04:31.000 | for the weapon became public.

00:04:32.000 | And what that did for the industry

00:04:34.000 | was it gave everybody the same foundation to build on.

00:04:38.000 | So if you can imagine proprietary designs,

00:04:41.000 | only the manufacturer would really know all the details,

00:04:44.000 | and everybody else kind of has to figure it out on their own.

00:04:47.000 | When the military specifications

00:04:49.000 | became available to everybody,

00:04:50.000 | it basically gave everybody the same blueprints to work from,

00:04:54.000 | which means everything is compatible.

00:04:57.000 | So basically, a mil-spec AR is the term

00:05:00.000 | for something that's based on those designs,

00:05:03.000 | which means that everything that is mil-spec is compatible.

00:05:06.000 | And one way that it makes it--

00:05:10.000 | they call it "Legos for Men"

00:05:12.000 | because that makes everything modular

00:05:14.000 | because everybody knows that they can make stuff

00:05:16.000 | that's compatible with everybody else's stuff.

00:05:18.000 | And in terms of the free market,

00:05:20.000 | you can just imagine how powerful that is.

00:05:22.000 | - It's been especially powerful, too,

00:05:24.000 | because with the exception of what, on the AR-15 rifle,

00:05:27.000 | is called the lower receiver,

00:05:29.000 | the lower receiver,

00:05:30.000 | which is the part that's stamped

00:05:31.000 | with the serial number for the gun,

00:05:33.000 | that's the only thing that's technically,

00:05:34.000 | according to the law, considered to be a firearm.

00:05:37.000 | So that's the only piece of it

00:05:39.000 | that is actually regulated as a firearm.

00:05:41.000 | Every other individual component,

00:05:43.000 | whether that's the stock, the sight system,

00:05:45.000 | the barrel, you know, the grips,

00:05:48.000 | every other component of the rifle

00:05:50.000 | can be freely bought and sold on the public market,

00:05:53.000 | can be bought through the mail,

00:05:54.000 | it can be bought over the internet.

00:05:56.000 | You don't have to deal with the federal firearms licensing.

00:06:00.000 | And so that's led to just this massive proliferation

00:06:04.000 | of quality accessories,

00:06:06.000 | ranging from the cheap to the very high end,

00:06:08.000 | that you can swap in and out

00:06:10.000 | of a huge majority of the rifles.

00:06:13.000 | - Right, and, you know,

00:06:16.000 | we had the assault weapons ban of '94 under Clinton,

00:06:20.000 | which, incidentally,

00:06:22.000 | was probably one of the main factors

00:06:24.000 | that fueled the Republican Revolution

00:06:27.000 | to take over the House in '94.

00:06:29.000 | - Definitely.

00:06:30.000 | - And so that kind of kept a lid on the market for 10 years.

00:06:34.000 | But in '04, when that expired and was not renewed,

00:06:37.000 | the market just exploded.

00:06:39.000 | And like you say, you can--

00:06:42.000 | the range is so big,

00:06:44.000 | from the cheapest to the most expensive,

00:06:47.000 | and everything in between,

00:06:48.000 | that it's just a really great illustration

00:06:51.000 | of what happens with the free market

00:06:53.000 | when it's allowed to do its thing.

00:06:55.000 | - Right, right.

00:06:56.000 | So you can-- with the AR platform,

00:06:58.000 | you could buy anything from--

00:07:00.000 | I mean, what would you say is,

00:07:01.000 | in current market, as we record this

00:07:03.000 | in end of February 2018,

00:07:05.000 | I would say current market price,

00:07:07.000 | the last gun show I went to,

00:07:09.000 | for a completed, put together,

00:07:12.000 | a complete AR, ready to shoot out of the box.

00:07:14.000 | We're not talking about a parted,

00:07:15.000 | kitted one that you build yourself.

00:07:17.000 | But a complete AR, probably in the range of $600.

00:07:20.000 | - Yeah, you know, they say that Obama

00:07:23.000 | was the best gun salesman ever,

00:07:26.000 | and prices actually stayed high

00:07:28.000 | because everybody was a little bit nervous

00:07:30.000 | about what might happen under him

00:07:32.000 | with the regulations.

00:07:33.000 | But after the election and Trump winning,

00:07:37.000 | it actually was really bad for the market,

00:07:39.000 | and so the prices went down below that

00:07:40.000 | to the point where you can find a name brand,

00:07:43.000 | a complete rifle,

00:07:44.000 | entry level for probably under $500.

00:07:46.000 | - Right, right.

00:07:47.000 | And that's not even necessarily

00:07:48.000 | the cheapest way to put a rifle together.

00:07:51.000 | Because you can buy--

00:07:53.000 | so again, the actual firearm

00:07:55.000 | is considered, but for legislation,

00:07:57.000 | what's called lower receiver.

00:07:58.000 | You could buy a mil-spec lower receiver for what?

00:08:02.000 | 40 bucks?

00:08:04.000 | - Yeah, they've been around $40 to $50

00:08:05.000 | for quite a while.

00:08:06.000 | - Right.

00:08:07.000 | And so this is not--

00:08:08.000 | if you're not familiar with the design,

00:08:10.000 | you're not familiar with the platform,

00:08:11.000 | you're not familiar with guns,

00:08:13.000 | when I say lower receiver,

00:08:15.000 | this is not something that you can actually

00:08:17.000 | put a bullet in and pull the trigger.

00:08:20.000 | All you have is this little box of metal

00:08:23.000 | that has a little mechanism in it.

00:08:25.000 | And you just pay 40 bucks for that.

00:08:27.000 | You have to add--

00:08:28.000 | - Yeah, it's literally a piece of metal

00:08:29.000 | with holes drilled in the right places

00:08:31.000 | in the right shape.

00:08:32.000 | - But it has a serial number on it,

00:08:33.000 | and that's what's considered legally the firearm.

00:08:36.000 | And so probably the cheapest way to do it

00:08:39.000 | is to build it yourself.

00:08:41.000 | You can put together a kit,

00:08:42.000 | you buy the lower receiver,

00:08:44.000 | and the way the law works is

00:08:46.000 | to buy that lower receiver

00:08:48.000 | in the new marketplace,

00:08:51.000 | you have to go and buy that

00:08:53.000 | from a federally licensed firearms dealer.

00:08:56.000 | If you're gonna buy it online,

00:08:57.000 | if you ever go and you're shopping online,

00:08:59.000 | you're gonna buy it.

00:09:00.000 | The way that works is your product

00:09:02.000 | has to be shipped to you

00:09:04.000 | through a federal firearms licensee.

00:09:06.000 | So if you've never bought a gun online,

00:09:08.000 | you can buy it online,

00:09:09.000 | but they don't just ship it right to your house.

00:09:11.000 | You have to set up a relationship

00:09:12.000 | with a local FFL,

00:09:14.000 | is the acronym for it,

00:09:16.000 | a local federal firearms dealer

00:09:19.000 | who will run the background check,

00:09:21.000 | take the appropriate paperwork,

00:09:23.000 | make sure that you pass it

00:09:25.000 | if you have waiting periods or things like that

00:09:27.000 | you have to deal with.

00:09:28.000 | They're the ones who are responsible

00:09:29.000 | for following all the federal regulations.

00:09:32.000 | But then once you get that little piece,

00:09:34.000 | you can order the other pieces.

00:09:36.000 | - Yeah, just to be clear,

00:09:39.000 | the purchase price of these things right now

00:09:41.000 | might be around $40 to $50.

00:09:43.000 | You may have to add shipping on top of that,

00:09:45.000 | and then most of these dealers

00:09:47.000 | would charge some kind of transfer fee.

00:09:49.000 | It can range from $25 to $30 up to more.

00:09:53.000 | So if you find some small guy

00:09:56.000 | who's just running his business out of his house,

00:09:58.000 | then he's gonna be cheap.

00:10:00.000 | So add that into the cost.

00:10:02.000 | Of course, if you buy multiple ones,

00:10:03.000 | you may get a volume discount.

00:10:05.000 | But if you're just gonna buy one,

00:10:07.000 | figure by the time it's delivered,

00:10:08.000 | you may be closer to $100,

00:10:11.000 | but it's still pretty cheap.

00:10:13.000 | - Right.

00:10:14.000 | So then in my analysis,

00:10:16.000 | you can buy different variations.

00:10:18.000 | You could buy, if you knew what you were doing

00:10:20.000 | or if you knew what you wanted,

00:10:21.000 | you can buy each of the components

00:10:23.000 | and then put the gun together yourself.

00:10:25.000 | It requires, what did you say, some basic skills?

00:10:28.000 | - Yeah, it's really that's going back

00:10:30.000 | to what makes the AR-15 special.

00:10:33.000 | For example, the big alternative generally

00:10:36.000 | is the AK-47 or AK-74.

00:10:39.000 | Those are--

00:10:40.000 | - The difference between those is that the AK-70--

00:10:43.000 | Sorry, the AK-47 fires a larger round,

00:10:46.000 | basically almost a 30 caliber round,

00:10:47.000 | a 7.62 millimeter round,

00:10:51.000 | whereas the AK-74 is the AK design

00:10:54.000 | that is comparable to the AR-15 caliber.

00:10:56.000 | What is that, the 5.45?

00:10:58.000 | - 4.5, yeah.

00:10:59.000 | - Right, 5.45 millimeters.

00:11:00.000 | So an AK-74 fires a very small bullet,

00:11:04.000 | just like we should note,

00:11:05.000 | if you're not familiar with AR-15s.

00:11:08.000 | AR-15s generally,

00:11:11.000 | and you can get them in different calipers,

00:11:13.000 | but an AR-15 fires a very small,

00:11:16.000 | relatively small bullet.

00:11:18.000 | You'll hear that referred to,

00:11:20.000 | and there's two different sizes of,

00:11:22.000 | they're chambered in,

00:11:23.000 | either in what's called 5.56 millimeter NATO

00:11:26.000 | or .223 inches,

00:11:28.000 | and they are almost equivalent.

00:11:30.000 | They're not necessarily interchangeable all the time,

00:11:32.000 | but they're basically interchangeable.

00:11:34.000 | And to that bullet, just for sake of comparison,

00:11:39.000 | the actual bullet size of the cartridge,

00:11:42.000 | of the round,

00:11:43.000 | the actual bullet size that comes out of a standard AR-15

00:11:46.000 | is the same size as a .22 long rifle

00:11:51.000 | that you plink in your backyard,

00:11:52.000 | but it has a lot more powder behind it.

00:11:54.000 | It comes out at a much higher velocity,

00:11:56.000 | but it's--

00:11:57.000 | - And it's also heavier.

00:11:58.000 | - Right, and it's heavier.

00:11:59.000 | - Longer.

00:12:00.000 | - But in terms of the size of the bullet,

00:12:01.000 | it's much smaller.

00:12:02.000 | Now, you can take the AR-15 gun design

00:12:05.000 | and you can chamber it in different calibers.

00:12:09.000 | So there's a big, in the enthusiast community,

00:12:11.000 | there's a big push towards something called a 300 blackout,

00:12:14.000 | or you can buy an AR-10,

00:12:16.000 | which fires a round that is a .308 size bullet.

00:12:24.000 | But why was I telling about the bullet size?

00:12:27.000 | Just that it's a relatively small gun.

00:12:28.000 | So that's the difference between AK-47 and AK-74.

00:12:30.000 | - We'll call it AK for now,

00:12:31.000 | but the point I was gonna make is that

00:12:33.000 | the AK is a design that was come out of, you know,

00:12:36.000 | Soviet industrial world

00:12:39.000 | where they're making these things in big factories

00:12:42.000 | over there in Yugoslavia or wherever they might be.

00:12:45.000 | And it requires some significant machine tools

00:12:49.000 | to assemble parts of it.

00:12:50.000 | I think part of it has to be pressed together

00:12:52.000 | and stuff like that.

00:12:53.000 | Anyway, the AR literally is nothing but hand tools.

00:12:57.000 | And you won't find these tools at Home Depot,

00:13:00.000 | but they're readily available online.

00:13:02.000 | They're relatively affordable.

00:13:03.000 | So if you wanted to,

00:13:05.000 | depending on how much you want to get the specialized tools

00:13:08.000 | to make things easier,

00:13:10.000 | but some basic hand tools and maybe a vice

00:13:13.000 | to hold everything in place for you,

00:13:15.000 | and you can literally assemble the entire thing

00:13:18.000 | from a bag of parts to a complete gun ready to fire,

00:13:22.000 | you know, right there in your home.

00:13:25.000 | - Right.

00:13:26.000 | And so every gun platform has its advantages and disadvantages.

00:13:29.000 | Some people love the AK platform,

00:13:31.000 | but the AK platform is not modular like the AR is,

00:13:35.000 | at least that's my knowledge, right?

00:13:37.000 | - There's no mil spec for AK.

00:13:39.000 | - So you can buy a high-end AK,

00:13:41.000 | you can buy a low-end AK.

00:13:42.000 | - They wish there was.

00:13:43.000 | - And people still love them.

00:13:44.000 | And you can pick them up out of the dirt

00:13:46.000 | and wipe it out and shoot them.

00:13:48.000 | That's the whole point of why they're so popular

00:13:50.000 | on a global basis.

00:13:51.000 | But they don't have the ability of an AR to be customized.

00:13:55.000 | So the big valuable thing I would say about it,

00:13:57.000 | one of the reasons why people love the AR platform

00:13:59.000 | is it's upgradable and it can be designed

00:14:06.000 | for a specific purpose.

00:14:08.000 | So upgradable, you can buy a cheap AR-15

00:14:12.000 | as an entry-level, you know, starter firearm.

00:14:15.000 | You've got 800 bucks, you buy an inexpensive one

00:14:18.000 | and buy some ammo to go with it.

00:14:20.000 | But then over time, if you have more money,

00:14:22.000 | you can swap out the trigger for a better trigger,

00:14:24.000 | you can swap out the barrel for a better barrel,

00:14:26.000 | you can add some gear to the front of it

00:14:28.000 | to make it have a red dot or a laser or lights

00:14:31.000 | and all the stuff.

00:14:32.000 | And so you can start simple and upgrade from there.

00:14:35.000 | And that's really, really powerful

00:14:36.000 | because it gives the people the ability to buy one rifle

00:14:40.000 | and to improve it over time.

00:14:44.000 | The second thing that in my mind makes an AR-15 so powerful

00:14:48.000 | is that it can be adjusted to fit your specific needs and goals.

00:14:53.000 | So if you have a specific application,

00:14:56.000 | most guns are compromises.

00:14:58.000 | You're usually compromising something

00:15:01.000 | to fit specific needs.

00:15:03.000 | But if you want an AR-15 that can do relatively consistent,

00:15:08.000 | accurate, medium-distance shooting,

00:15:10.000 | it's not a long-range platform,

00:15:12.000 | it just doesn't have the ballistic characteristics

00:15:15.000 | to shoot effectively at very long ranges.

00:15:18.000 | But if you want one that's accurate

00:15:19.000 | at medium-distance ranges,

00:15:20.000 | out to a couple hundred, 300 yards,

00:15:22.000 | you can put that together, you can build it,

00:15:24.000 | you can put a quality barrel,

00:15:26.000 | you can put a quality sighting system.

00:15:28.000 | But on the other hand,

00:15:29.000 | if you want something that is short and small

00:15:32.000 | to use as your home defense gun

00:15:34.000 | or to use in an application

00:15:36.000 | where you need to fit it into a very small package,

00:15:39.000 | you, depending on how short you go,

00:15:42.000 | you have the ability to do that as well.

00:15:44.000 | So one gun can be changed to meet different applications.

00:15:48.000 | Yeah, and speaking of accuracy for a minute,

00:15:51.000 | that is one of the wonderful things about the design.

00:15:55.000 | And to this day, I'm not sure that there is anybody

00:16:00.000 | who has developed a better design

00:16:03.000 | that is capable of more accuracy

00:16:06.000 | than that platform is capable of.

00:16:08.000 | And a lot of people like to make fun of the AK

00:16:11.000 | and say it's a minute of barn or something like that.

00:16:15.000 | The AK is not known for its accuracy.

00:16:17.000 | The AR, even the military specification for the AR

00:16:23.000 | is very generous.

00:16:24.000 | They put it in terms of MOA,

00:16:26.000 | so a 4 MOA would basically be--

00:16:28.000 | MOA is an acronym that stands for minute of angle.

00:16:30.000 | Right, and what it really means is that 100 yards,

00:16:34.000 | your distribution of the various shots

00:16:36.000 | might be inside a 4-inch circle.

00:16:38.000 | Well, a $500 or less,

00:16:43.000 | maybe even entry-level gun,

00:16:45.000 | is probably at least half of that.

00:16:48.000 | It could very easily, with the right ammunition, be 2 MOA.

00:16:51.000 | And then when you start doing various modifications,

00:16:55.000 | whatever they may be,

00:16:57.000 | there's plenty of people--

00:16:59.000 | well, even factory guns-- that can do under 1 MOA,

00:17:03.000 | which means that if you shoot 3 bullets

00:17:06.000 | at the same spot on a target,

00:17:08.000 | the variance between them is going to be less than an inch.

00:17:11.000 | And that is something inherent to the design

00:17:14.000 | that, like I said, there's brand-new designs

00:17:18.000 | coming out now that often can't even do that.

00:17:22.000 | Right, so explain what makes it so inherently accurate

00:17:25.000 | with the way that the mechanism actually works.

00:17:27.000 | Well, the technical aspect of it--

00:17:29.000 | I'm not sure I could speak really authoritatively on that,

00:17:33.000 | but, you know, part of it is the design,

00:17:39.000 | and part of it is the widespread availability

00:17:42.000 | of quality components.

00:17:44.000 | So, for example, the biggest factors in accuracy

00:17:48.000 | is going to be the barrel,

00:17:50.000 | and then after that's going to be the trigger.

00:17:52.000 | And so, you know, you can get your $500 gun,

00:17:57.000 | and then whenever you decide you want to get a nicer barrel,

00:18:00.000 | if you've got the tools to do it,

00:18:02.000 | then you can swap that out, and all of a sudden

00:18:04.000 | you've made a much more accurate gun.

00:18:06.000 | And frankly, there are--

00:18:09.000 | often they're used as-- they call it varmint guns,

00:18:13.000 | and that's things like prairie dogs

00:18:15.000 | that they do out west for hunting,

00:18:17.000 | where it's a very long distance with a small bullet.

00:18:20.000 | And, you know, those guys do some amazing things,

00:18:23.000 | but, you know, you get a better trigger

00:18:26.000 | and just swap it in there.

00:18:28.000 | Right.

00:18:29.000 | Yeah, it's probably too hard to go through

00:18:31.000 | the technical characteristics of how the action

00:18:34.000 | actually operates in an audio format,

00:18:36.000 | but if you're interested, go on YouTube.

00:18:38.000 | There's plenty of things available to understand.

00:18:42.000 | It has a fundamentally--

00:18:46.000 | just a really neat way that it handles

00:18:48.000 | the actual mechanism of cycling the action,

00:18:51.000 | which makes it a powerful platform.

00:18:54.000 | In terms of applications, talk about

00:18:56.000 | some of the different applications

00:18:58.000 | that you've seen people build them for

00:19:00.000 | that make it so versatile.

00:19:02.000 | Sure, and maybe I could just also put that

00:19:05.000 | in the context of needs.

00:19:08.000 | And, you know, one thing you have to be aware of

00:19:10.000 | if you're getting into this world is that

00:19:12.000 | the people who are the most active online

00:19:15.000 | and in the dialogues are probably the enthusiasts.

00:19:17.000 | They're not the normal people.

00:19:19.000 | And so, you know, us gun nuts can get pretty

00:19:23.000 | obsessive about things that you really

00:19:25.000 | don't need to care about, and it can be difficult

00:19:27.000 | to weed through all that just to find what you need.

00:19:30.000 | But, you know, in terms of application,

00:19:33.000 | many people simply buy these things for self-defense.

00:19:37.000 | You know, they may have to use a handgun

00:19:39.000 | because they can't carry a rifle around them every day,

00:19:41.000 | but if they're at home or they're near a vehicle

00:19:43.000 | or there's something special going on,

00:19:45.000 | the rifle is far superior to a handgun

00:19:48.000 | or any self-defense situation.

00:19:50.000 | And for that, you really don't need that much.

00:19:54.000 | Yeah, a rifle is superior in a self-defense situation

00:19:58.000 | for multiple reasons.

00:20:00.000 | I'll give mine and then you add yours.

00:20:01.000 | One, it's easier to shoot a rifle accurately

00:20:04.000 | than to shoot a handgun accurately,

00:20:07.000 | just simply based upon the length of the barrel

00:20:09.000 | and the pointing mechanism.

00:20:11.000 | You can teach a novice shooter.

00:20:13.000 | I could take a 12-year-old boy or girl

00:20:17.000 | and put an AR-15 in their hands,

00:20:19.000 | and in a couple of hours of instruction,

00:20:21.000 | you can have them reliably hitting rounds accurately

00:20:26.000 | because of the fact that it's a rifle versus a handgun.

00:20:30.000 | Multiple points of stabilization.

00:20:32.000 | Right, right.

00:20:33.000 | You have--I'm going to get so technical.

00:20:36.000 | It's just an inherently more stable platform,

00:20:38.000 | and it's easier to shoot accurately.

00:20:41.000 | Number two, an AR-15 is a really ideal thing

00:20:46.000 | for a home defense weapon

00:20:48.000 | just because of its standard capacity

00:20:50.000 | of the number of rounds that it can carry.

00:20:54.000 | A standard capacity magazine for an AR-15 is 30 rounds.

00:20:58.000 | Now, you can buy them that are 20 rounds.

00:21:00.000 | If you live in California, you can buy them with 10 rounds.

00:21:03.000 | You can buy them with 40 rounds,

00:21:05.000 | and you can buy drums that are more,

00:21:07.000 | but you can buy a 100-round drum,

00:21:09.000 | but it gets so heavy, you can't do it.

00:21:11.000 | But just a standard AR-15 30-round magazine,

00:21:14.000 | which in today's market is--you can buy for $10,

00:21:17.000 | which is just amazing.

00:21:18.000 | Those people who lived through the assault weapons ban

00:21:20.000 | from '94 to '04 used to pay through the nose

00:21:23.000 | for a pre-ban magazine.

00:21:26.000 | But a standard magazine gives you 30 rounds,

00:21:28.000 | and so you put an AR-15 with a 30-round capacity

00:21:33.000 | in the hands of a basic shooter.

00:21:37.000 | You've put a very effective weapon

00:21:40.000 | in the hands of a basic shooter

00:21:42.000 | in a situation like a home defense type of scenario.

00:21:45.000 | - Yeah, and just to inject a little bit of reality

00:21:47.000 | into the political discourse that's going on right now,

00:21:52.000 | a lot of people have this perception of the AR-15

00:21:56.000 | incorrectly labeled an assault weapon,

00:21:58.000 | but let's just, you know, say it's the same thing.

00:22:01.000 | We're all talking about the same thing.

00:22:03.000 | The round itself is actually not that effective

00:22:06.000 | against, you know, a human target,

00:22:08.000 | which is basically what we're talking about in self-defense.

00:22:11.000 | You're shooting a human who legally needs to be shot.

00:22:14.000 | It's an unpleasant reality, but it's there.

00:22:17.000 | And, you know, I think you talk to any soldier

00:22:20.000 | who's used this gun--or, sorry, to be more accurate,

00:22:23.000 | this caliber, this cartridge in combat.

00:22:26.000 | They'll tell you that they may have needed to do

00:22:28.000 | shooting an enemy soldier multiple times

00:22:31.000 | before, you know, they went down.

00:22:33.000 | And so a lot of people look at this question

00:22:36.000 | of a high-capacity magazine and say,

00:22:37.000 | "What do you need all that for?"

00:22:38.000 | Well, the truth is that even if you're hitting your target,

00:22:41.000 | you probably need to hit them multiple times

00:22:43.000 | because, let's be realistic,

00:22:45.000 | if you are shooting a gun in self-defense,

00:22:47.000 | you need to stop that person immediately.

00:22:50.000 | Otherwise, it's probably not justified.

00:22:52.000 | And so you need to immediately stop that person

00:22:55.000 | from being the threat that they are presenting.

00:22:58.000 | And so that's one of the great things about the AR-15,

00:23:01.000 | is that you don't have to reload very quickly.

00:23:04.000 | And so you are able to use that weapon effectively

00:23:08.000 | to do what you need to do.

00:23:10.000 | And as soon as additional threats are added--

00:23:13.000 | for example, a group of people

00:23:15.000 | who are all posing a threat--

00:23:17.000 | you suddenly may run out of bullets very quickly

00:23:19.000 | with a 30-round magazine.

00:23:20.000 | And that's assuming you're hitting your target,

00:23:22.000 | which--

00:23:23.000 | - I should not be assumed.

00:23:25.000 | - I actually looked this up, and I was amazed that--

00:23:28.000 | and it's probably not a--

00:23:30.000 | you know, it's a little misleading

00:23:32.000 | because they compared the number of bullets purchased--

00:23:35.000 | I mean, technically correct.

00:23:37.000 | Somebody's going to give me a hard time about this.

00:23:39.000 | But the number of cartridges purchased by the military

00:23:42.000 | to the number of confirmed kills.

00:23:44.000 | And it was literally 250,000.

00:23:48.000 | - To one.

00:23:49.000 | - To one.

00:23:50.000 | [laughter]

00:23:51.000 | So I don't know that that's an actual representation

00:23:54.000 | of how many rounds a soldier fires per target.

00:23:56.000 | But it was kind of silly.

00:23:58.000 | And even police, you know, their hit rates

00:24:00.000 | are below 30% generally in the statistics.

00:24:03.000 | So, you know, just to put

00:24:05.000 | the high-capacity magazine in perspective,

00:24:08.000 | it's not what people think it is.

00:24:12.000 | And in terms of using this gun for legal purposes,

00:24:16.000 | it's actually a very important asset.

00:24:18.000 | - Right, right.

00:24:19.000 | And the other benefit of the AR-15 platform,

00:24:22.000 | specifically of the relatively small-caliber bullet--

00:24:26.000 | and this is one of the reasons, in my understanding,

00:24:28.000 | that the military moved some of their foot soldiers to it--

00:24:31.000 | was unlike a larger .308,

00:24:34.000 | which was the previous standard,

00:24:36.000 | all the way up through Vietnam,

00:24:38.000 | unlike a larger--a larger bullet is heavier.

00:24:41.000 | So you can carry fewer rounds with you.

00:24:43.000 | Whereas the smaller cartridge,

00:24:46.000 | the .223 caliber, the 5.56 that the AR-15 fires,

00:24:50.000 | is smaller, it's lighter, you can carry more rounds.

00:24:53.000 | But what it means is I can take a standard AR,

00:24:56.000 | put a 30-round magazine in it,

00:24:58.000 | it comes--tips the scales at, what, 7 pounds,

00:25:00.000 | something like that? - Yeah, loaded.

00:25:01.000 | - 6 to 8 pounds? - 6 to 8.

00:25:03.000 | - So I can give that rifle, which doesn't have an--

00:25:06.000 | especially if it doesn't have a very long barrel on it,

00:25:09.000 | I can give that rifle to my 115-pound wife,

00:25:12.000 | and she is equalized in her ability

00:25:15.000 | to have a powerful, useful firearm that she can hold.

00:25:20.000 | She's not gonna hold an M1 Garand.

00:25:22.000 | I could put an M1 Garand in her hand and say,

00:25:24.000 | "Here are a couple of stripper clips."

00:25:25.000 | The M1 Garand was a standard rifle

00:25:27.000 | for World War I, World War II, but I could say,

00:25:29.000 | "Here are a couple of stripper clips."

00:25:30.000 | She can't hold the thing, 'cause empty, it's what?

00:25:32.000 | It's like 12 or 13 pounds empty. - I don't know if it's heavy.

00:25:35.000 | - Whereas an AR is light, and it really is effective.

00:25:38.000 | So it's really--it's a wonderful platform.

00:25:41.000 | It's a miracle of modern technology.

00:25:44.000 | - Yeah, so just real quick, to go back

00:25:46.000 | to your original question about applications,

00:25:48.000 | your basic entry-level rifle is gonna be pretty sufficient

00:25:52.000 | for self-defense, but if you do want something shorter,

00:25:55.000 | that is possible.

00:25:56.000 | Unfortunately, the price you pay for a shorter barrel

00:26:01.000 | is a bigger fireball coming out the end,

00:26:04.000 | 'cause there's powder that's not being used

00:26:06.000 | to propel that bullet, but it can be done very easily.

00:26:09.000 | And again, one thing I forgot to mention

00:26:12.000 | was you don't have to swap out barrels.

00:26:15.000 | One of the things that--again, going back to how nice

00:26:19.000 | the design is, these things are separated

00:26:21.000 | into lowers and uppers, and often what people do

00:26:25.000 | is they will have one lower component,

00:26:29.000 | and then they will swap out multiple uppers very easily,

00:26:33.000 | and you don't have to use any tools.

00:26:34.000 | You just pop a couple pins in and out.

00:26:36.000 | And so for whatever your application is,

00:26:39.000 | you just pop it out, pop it in,

00:26:41.000 | and you've got a completely different gun

00:26:43.000 | that doesn't require any tools to set up.

00:26:45.000 | It's all--you know, even the optic is mounted and zeroed,

00:26:48.000 | and you're ready to go.

00:26:50.000 | So shorter uppers, if you want something more compact,

00:26:54.000 | are very easily either purchased or built.

00:26:58.000 | And then, of course, if you are using it

00:27:01.000 | for something beyond that,

00:27:02.000 | where either you're going the longer distance,

00:27:04.000 | which, you know, you have to be realistic

00:27:07.000 | about self-defense.

00:27:08.000 | If somebody's 100 yards away,

00:27:11.000 | it's hard to build the case for legal self-defense.

00:27:14.000 | - That's if you're in a war and we're not.

00:27:15.000 | There's no legal case you can make for that.

00:27:17.000 | - Yeah, so beyond that, it goes primarily

00:27:19.000 | into hunting and recreation.

00:27:21.000 | And there, it's pretty much whatever you want to do,

00:27:23.000 | whether it's a longer barrel to get more range,

00:27:26.000 | whether it's a more accurate barrel,

00:27:28.000 | or going back to what Joshua was saying

00:27:31.000 | about the calibers.

00:27:33.000 | Let's say you do want a bigger caliber for hunting.

00:27:36.000 | You can have that set up in a separate upper

00:27:38.000 | that you just pop on,

00:27:39.000 | and now you're ready with something.

00:27:40.000 | It's actually not legal, I believe, in most states,

00:27:42.000 | if not all, to shoot deer with this caliber.

00:27:46.000 | It's not considered humane.

00:27:48.000 | So, but you can easily--

00:27:50.000 | - Because it's too small.

00:27:51.000 | - Right, right.

00:27:52.000 | - It's not big enough.

00:27:53.000 | - It's not gonna be a quick kill.

00:27:54.000 | It's not gonna be humane to the animal.

00:27:56.000 | It's gonna result in a wounded animal

00:27:58.000 | that's a very undesirable situation for many reasons.

00:28:02.000 | But you can swap in that larger caliber

00:28:05.000 | very easily for hunting.

00:28:07.000 | And, you know, again,

00:28:11.000 | there are what they call pistol versions,

00:28:13.000 | which actually don't have a stock,

00:28:16.000 | but have their applications,

00:28:17.000 | whether being shorter or getting around--

00:28:20.000 | You know, some states have regulations

00:28:23.000 | that are a little more restricted than others,

00:28:26.000 | but the pistol variation can help you

00:28:28.000 | get around some of that legally

00:28:30.000 | and still be able to accomplish

00:28:32.000 | what you're trying to do.

00:28:34.000 | - And also, just the ability with the barrels.

00:28:37.000 | You can--

00:28:38.000 | Some people, many people will shorten up

00:28:40.000 | and buy a short barrel.

00:28:41.000 | Some of them, if you go too short,

00:28:44.000 | then you have to apply and pay the federal government

00:28:48.000 | a $200 tax stamp for the privilege

00:28:50.000 | of having your barrel and get it registered.

00:28:53.000 | - Yeah, yeah.

00:28:54.000 | The barrel thing primarily comes from

00:28:56.000 | the era of gangsters in the '20s and '30s,

00:28:59.000 | and they didn't like these gangsters

00:29:01.000 | hiding their guns underneath their trench coats,

00:29:03.000 | so they thought that they were going to solve

00:29:05.000 | that problem with restrictions on the barrels.

00:29:07.000 | But one thing I didn't mention in this conversation,

00:29:10.000 | in this question, is adding a suppressor,

00:29:13.000 | a silencer, it's becoming much more common,

00:29:16.000 | and, you know, a lot of people,

00:29:18.000 | all they know about that is from the movies,

00:29:20.000 | which is, of course, as with most things

00:29:22.000 | it does inaccurate, and it really doesn't

00:29:24.000 | make it that much quieter.

00:29:26.000 | It doesn't make you able to sneak around

00:29:28.000 | and shoot stuff without anybody hearing,

00:29:30.000 | but it does protect your hearing as a shooter,

00:29:32.000 | and it also, they like to say,

00:29:35.000 | it's respectful to your neighbors

00:29:36.000 | if you happen to be in a place where you can shoot.

00:29:38.000 | But anyway, if you are going to add a suppressor,

00:29:41.000 | then that starts to make the weapon much longer,

00:29:43.000 | so then you may go to a shorter barrel

00:29:45.000 | just to compensate for that,

00:29:46.000 | and that's where something like what Joshua mentioned

00:29:48.000 | about the .300 Blackout, that was designed for that.

00:29:51.000 | So once you dig into it, you may find yourself,

00:29:54.000 | you know, going a little deeper into it

00:29:56.000 | and finding out some of the pretty neat stuff

00:29:58.000 | that can be done with the alternatives

00:30:02.000 | to the original setup.

00:30:05.000 | - So let's get to practical advice,

00:30:06.000 | because obviously I want to give you practical advice.

00:30:09.000 | I don't want to just, you can become an enthusiast

00:30:11.000 | and do all that if you're interested,

00:30:13.000 | but the practical advice is, number one,

00:30:16.000 | go and get one.

00:30:17.000 | It's hard for me to imagine it being

00:30:19.000 | a bad financial decision to buy an AR-15.

00:30:22.000 | They are very much demonized.

00:30:25.000 | They're very much, many people would like to legislate them.

00:30:29.000 | If they did legislate them, then the value would go up.

00:30:33.000 | An AR-15 that's not destroyed, not overused,

00:30:38.000 | has a very high value in the secondary market.

00:30:40.000 | If you ever need to sell it,

00:30:41.000 | you can sell it very, very quickly.

00:30:43.000 | And if you need to upgrade it, it can be a good decision.

00:30:46.000 | So can you imagine a scenario in which

00:30:49.000 | you wind up financially poor with an AR?

00:30:52.000 | - Yeah, most people who own these things

00:30:55.000 | have no intention of ever selling them.

00:30:57.000 | But no, I just, I mean, they're so cheap today

00:31:01.000 | that there's just absolutely no way that,

00:31:05.000 | you know, maybe with 3D printing someday,

00:31:08.000 | that they'll get the production costs so low

00:31:10.000 | that it'll go down by $10.

00:31:11.000 | But that's not what we're talking about.

00:31:13.000 | And it's much more likely,

00:31:17.000 | if you survey the political landscape,

00:31:19.000 | it's much more likely that there's gonna be

00:31:21.000 | more restrictions in the future than less.

00:31:24.000 | And even if there are less,

00:31:25.000 | it's not really gonna change the value.

00:31:27.000 | And so in many ways, you can look at this

00:31:29.000 | as simply future-proofing yourself.

00:31:31.000 | And that is the beauty of this thing

00:31:35.000 | where you can just buy that lower receiver.

00:31:37.000 | You may not wanna shoot right now.

00:31:39.000 | You may not wanna get into guns.

00:31:40.000 | You may not wanna do anything

00:31:42.000 | except not have to worry about such things in the future.

00:31:45.000 | In which case, you can go buy these lower receivers.

00:31:48.000 | You can put them wherever you want.

00:31:49.000 | You frankly don't even have to lock 'em up in a safe.

00:31:51.000 | No kid is gonna do any, get in trouble with them.

00:31:53.000 | There's no way to shoot a bullet

00:31:55.000 | out of an AR-15 lower receiver.

00:31:57.000 | It's just a piece of metal, and that's it.

00:31:59.000 | So you may just wanna go buy some of these

00:32:01.000 | and stick 'em in a box in a closet,

00:32:02.000 | forget about them for the rest of your life.

00:32:05.000 | But if you, you know, are worried at all

00:32:08.000 | about the future trajectory of the political elements

00:32:12.000 | and the legislation and everything else,

00:32:14.000 | you may very well be happy in the future

00:32:16.000 | that you have that, or you may be very happy

00:32:18.000 | that you can pass it on to your children.

00:32:20.000 | And frankly, like I said, this is aluminum.

00:32:22.000 | You know, you don't even have to worry about it rusting.

00:32:24.000 | So if all you did was stick these things in a box

00:32:27.000 | and pass it on to your children's children,

00:32:29.000 | it would still be just as usable, you know,

00:32:32.000 | 100 years from now.

00:32:33.000 | And you don't even have to worry about

00:32:35.000 | the prospect of having to do it yourself.

00:32:37.000 | There are plenty of people you could find

00:32:39.000 | who for a small fee would be happy

00:32:40.000 | to build it on there for you.

00:32:42.000 | - Right. And once you own that,

00:32:44.000 | and especially, that's why I talk about

00:32:45.000 | the value in the secondary market,

00:32:47.000 | the ability to make a private party sale,

00:32:49.000 | a private sale of a firearm between individuals,

00:32:52.000 | and of course this is frequently debated

00:32:54.000 | in the political sphere under the so-called

00:32:56.000 | gun show loophole.

00:32:57.000 | There is no gun show loophole.

00:32:59.000 | There is the ability for any private individual

00:33:01.000 | to sell their property to another private individual.

00:33:03.000 | - Subject to state regulation.

00:33:05.000 | Some states are more strict than that on that.

00:33:06.000 | - Right. So, the point is that once you have something,

00:33:10.000 | you can sell it in the private market.

00:33:12.000 | And if you ever have the opportunity to buy a gun

00:33:14.000 | in the private market versus having to complete

00:33:17.000 | all of the federal paperwork,

00:33:19.000 | always choose the private market

00:33:21.000 | because it brings you additional protection.

00:33:23.000 | It's a more valuable thing to you.

00:33:25.000 | Now, the law is very clear that

00:33:28.000 | the federal government is not allowed

00:33:30.000 | to build and maintain registries and databases.

00:33:33.000 | However, I think most of us have a healthy distrust

00:33:37.000 | of even any direction in that area,

00:33:39.000 | and especially many gun owners have a healthy distrust.

00:33:42.000 | So, if you have them and you own them,

00:33:44.000 | and if you buy them in the private market,

00:33:46.000 | then there is no record of your ownership

00:33:49.000 | in the federal lists of paperwork.

00:33:52.000 | You can explore the details of how that works.

00:33:55.000 | It's a fascinating system.

00:33:57.000 | I appreciate the protections that have been put in place,

00:34:00.000 | but to the point, by owning those lowers,

00:34:05.000 | you are protecting yourself in many ways.

00:34:07.000 | Now, that doesn't mean that legislation cannot change.

00:34:09.000 | For example, California has all of these restrictions

00:34:13.000 | at present on what you're technically legally allowed to own.

00:34:16.000 | You are a felon.

00:34:19.000 | You are a convicted felon, but you could be charged

00:34:23.000 | if you own a standard capacity magazine

00:34:26.000 | in the state of California.

00:34:28.000 | There's this whole recent debacle with this new law.

00:34:31.000 | I won't go into California.

00:34:34.000 | But the reality is that in California, in Colorado,

00:34:37.000 | in New York, in Connecticut, nobody turns them in

00:34:41.000 | when they change the law.

00:34:43.000 | I read a story, was it Connecticut,

00:34:45.000 | where they were doing research on registries,

00:34:48.000 | and they found that 62% of police officers in the state

00:34:53.000 | had unregistered guns, even after they were supposed to all register.

00:34:56.000 | So there is widespread civil disobedience among gun owners

00:34:59.000 | in the United States of America, and it's fantastic to see,

00:35:01.000 | especially to see multiple police sheriffs are suing

00:35:04.000 | their state governments for the overreach,

00:35:08.000 | and I'm getting into a ditch.

00:35:10.000 | At this point, there are still plenty of law enforcement people

00:35:14.000 | who say they would not enforce certain restrictions, but...

00:35:19.000 | [laughter]

00:35:22.000 | Exactly. Times can change.

00:35:24.000 | So you could buy a lower.

00:35:26.000 | You can also just go and buy a completed gun,

00:35:29.000 | and that's what you probably should do if you are a new gun owner,

00:35:31.000 | in my opinion.

00:35:32.000 | Just go and buy a completed gun.

00:35:34.000 | Now, there is a kind of a halfway point.

00:35:36.000 | You could buy a completed upper and a completed lower,

00:35:38.000 | and you could do that as well,

00:35:40.000 | and that's probably one of your best deals in the current market.

00:35:43.000 | Right. I checked the prices today,

00:35:46.000 | and the lowers are still available for $40 to $50,

00:35:50.000 | and again, if you actually have zero interest in actually having a working gun

00:35:55.000 | or shooting it or having to lock it up somehow,

00:35:59.000 | then that may be the easiest solution.

00:36:02.000 | And that's probably the best investment opportunity.

00:36:04.000 | Right. Sure.

00:36:05.000 | If you wanted it from the investment perspective,

00:36:07.000 | because that lower is so valuable, especially if there were legal changes.

00:36:10.000 | Sure. Exactly.

00:36:11.000 | So going beyond that, if you want to actually have a functional firearm,

00:36:15.000 | then there's the separating the lower and the upper, like I mentioned before.

00:36:22.000 | The lower can be a little bit--has a lot more pieces and parts.

00:36:28.000 | I actually haven't done it myself yet.

00:36:30.000 | I've just watched the videos on how to do it.

00:36:32.000 | They're all over YouTube.

00:36:33.000 | If you're curious about that, it's very easy to find,

00:36:36.000 | and you can watch the--you know, basically,

00:36:38.000 | somebody knows what they're doing, can be done with it in 20 minutes or less.

00:36:42.000 | So, you know, they can make a video, a pretty short video,

00:36:45.000 | showing you how it's done and get a sense of it.

00:36:47.000 | The upper actually has much less assembly involved,

00:36:51.000 | maybe in terms of tools, maybe a little more.

00:36:55.000 | But the point is that you can do everything from nothing but parts.

00:37:01.000 | You can get an assembled upper and do the lower yourself,

00:37:07.000 | or you can do the lower yourself and buy the other way,

00:37:11.000 | or you can just buy a fully assembled lower and a fully assembled upper.

00:37:16.000 | And that can be the easiest solution while keeping the cost low.

00:37:22.000 | You're not really putting a name brand on there.

00:37:26.000 | You know, there are companies that have established a brand.

00:37:30.000 | I mean, the market in terms of gun manufacturing themselves

00:37:34.000 | is very clogged right now.

00:37:36.000 | The market just exploded after the ban expired,

00:37:40.000 | and I'm sure there are hundreds of AR-15 manufacturers

00:37:44.000 | to the point where they're going out of business right now

00:37:47.000 | because of the softening of the market after Trump was elected.

00:37:50.000 | So you may find a deal on a name brand thing,

00:37:54.000 | but they're still going to be more expensive.

00:37:56.000 | I think the entry level, for example, you walk into a gun store,

00:37:59.000 | Smith & Wesson, you'll probably find those $500 or so,

00:38:03.000 | and those are pretty acceptable quality.

00:38:06.000 | Let me just say one thing, though, on this,

00:38:08.000 | because we talked a lot about building yourself and everything else.

00:38:12.000 | Again, going back to application, if it's a--

00:38:16.000 | and the obsessive nature of the conversation.

00:38:21.000 | If you are a soldier or a police officer or anything else

00:38:26.000 | where there are critical applications,

00:38:30.000 | and there can't be any question about the reliability of your gun,

00:38:33.000 | whether it's going to do what you need it to do,

00:38:35.000 | usually the easy button is to go to a respected manufacturer

00:38:40.000 | and manufacturers may offer warranties and all that stuff.

00:38:45.000 | There's all the support that a manufacturer can give.

00:38:48.000 | If you are a hard user, for example, the enthusiasts,

00:38:53.000 | there are plenty of enthusiasts that will run through thousands

00:38:56.000 | of rounds in their guns in a month.

00:38:59.000 | And if you're a hard user, these are mechanical devices,

00:39:02.000 | and they can wear out, and there is a mil spec,

00:39:07.000 | and so if a company is trying to sell you a more expensive gun,

00:39:10.000 | they're going to tell you about how they're going beyond

00:39:12.000 | the military specification to make it better.

00:39:14.000 | So if that's your world, you probably don't need my advice,

00:39:18.000 | but you may spend more money for a name-brand product

00:39:22.000 | or there are improvements to design for things like--

00:39:28.000 | there are variations, for example, one of the common ones is piston design

00:39:31.000 | that you'll see that label, and that's basically lets it run longer

00:39:34.000 | without being cleaned reliably and stuff like that.

00:39:36.000 | If that's what you're doing, you'll probably figure this all out pretty quick.

00:39:40.000 | But if you're just a normal person who doesn't go shooting a lot,

00:39:44.000 | maybe you take it to the range to get familiar with it,

00:39:47.000 | have a little fun every once in a while, but that's it,

00:39:50.000 | I would say an entry-level gun is probably going to be sufficient

00:39:54.000 | as long as you verify that it works well.

00:39:57.000 | There are guns you can buy for the cheapest price possible

00:40:01.000 | and then they just don't work right. That does happen.

00:40:04.000 | But if you think about something that even you are going to rely on

00:40:07.000 | for self-defense, what do you need it to do?

00:40:09.000 | You don't need it to work for hundreds of rounds,

00:40:11.000 | you don't need it to run a thousand rounds without a single malfunction.

00:40:16.000 | You need it probably to shoot five bullets or so, or maybe ten,

00:40:20.000 | or maybe a full 30-round magazine.

00:40:22.000 | As long as you're confident to do that, you're going to be okay

00:40:24.000 | and you're never going to have a problem.

00:40:26.000 | Well, you know, personal opinion, opinions vary on this,

00:40:31.000 | but personal opinion, if you test it, let's say 500 rounds without problems,

00:40:39.000 | you probably achieve what you need to achieve.

00:40:41.000 | So, if you walk into, for example, if you walk into a gun store

00:40:45.000 | and you start letting them chat you up, they may want to tell you

00:40:48.000 | all about the superior aspects of a certain gun that costs

00:40:51.000 | two or three hundred more than the one next to it,

00:40:53.000 | and they may tell you all about a cold hammer-forged barrel, or whatever.

00:40:57.000 | Well, it is better quality, but you may not care.

00:41:01.000 | That may not be relevant to your use.

00:41:03.000 | So, don't get too caught up in that, don't let them talk you

00:41:07.000 | into all this business of quality.

00:41:09.000 | A mil-spec AR-15 is a mil-spec AR-15.

00:41:13.000 | It's everything that you need it to be for basic use,

00:41:17.000 | especially for recreational use.

00:41:19.000 | And you may find after you get the cheap one, you may figure out

00:41:23.000 | a lot better what you want to spend more money on later.

00:41:26.000 | But don't let anybody talk you into buying the expensive stuff,

00:41:29.000 | especially if it's your first gun or your first rifle.

00:41:32.000 | So, all that being said, you know, prices today, you can get

00:41:37.000 | a fully assembled lower around 150, you can get a fully assembled upper

00:41:43.000 | around 300, or even less if it's on sale, and basically, you know,

00:41:48.000 | the lower goes to your dealer, pay a fee to transfer that,

00:41:52.000 | the upper comes to you in the mail, you put those together

00:41:55.000 | and you've got yourself a fully assembled gun under 500, I'd say.

00:42:00.000 | So, here's my issue with gun people.

00:42:03.000 | It's so easy for gun people to get interested in all those details.

00:42:08.000 | "Oh, I've got this trigger, I've got this chrome moly blah blah blah barrel."

00:42:12.000 | If you've got a budget of $1,000, instead of doing what most people do,

00:42:17.000 | which is spend $950 on the gun, and then they have $50 of ammo

00:42:21.000 | to go to the range one time, spend $500 on the gun,

00:42:26.000 | spend $200 on magazines, buy 20 magazines for the thing,

00:42:31.000 | because if you ever had to use the gun--we're not talking home defense,

00:42:35.000 | here I'm just talking about the fact of having a rifle--

00:42:37.000 | if you ever had to go to war, which I pray you never do,

00:42:41.000 | and I pray I never do, I'd rather have 20 magazines than two.

00:42:45.000 | The magazines are the weak link, if you don't have those, or if they break.

00:42:48.000 | The gun is probably not going to break, you can buy a part set.

00:42:51.000 | But the big thing is buy ammo, and buy training, and buy range time.

00:42:55.000 | Those are the things that people miss.

00:42:57.000 | They don't buy ammo, they don't buy training, and they don't buy range time.

00:43:00.000 | And because of that, they aren't effective with their weapons.

00:43:04.000 | Right, and that's really--the one thing I haven't mentioned at all is accessories,

00:43:09.000 | but they are pretty essential, and there's a big difference

00:43:14.000 | between people who buy guns just because they want to buy them,

00:43:16.000 | and people who actually buy them because they want to use them for whatever use.

00:43:20.000 | If you're going to use a gun, you're going to need some accessories on there,

00:43:24.000 | at least minimum sights, most likely you're going to want some kind of red dot,

00:43:29.000 | which vary greatly in price, I mean, maybe $50 up to $600 or whatever.

00:43:34.000 | A red dot is a sighting mechanism that puts a hologram of a red dot on your target,

00:43:40.000 | and it's special because it provides fast target acquisition,

00:43:45.000 | allows you to bring the rifle up and quickly understand where it's aiming,

00:43:49.000 | and it's easy to see.

00:43:51.000 | So it's a very effective way for you to quickly get the rifle on target

00:43:55.000 | much faster than iron sights, the traditional iron sights.

00:43:58.000 | Right, it's a much more useful thing.

00:44:01.000 | I mean, basically it's to the point where a lot of people don't even bother

00:44:04.000 | putting the regular old sights on the rifle anymore because they never use them.

00:44:08.000 | Including, by the way, military special ops guys.

00:44:12.000 | A lot of those guys don't even bother because their optics are so reliable.

00:44:15.000 | Even as backups?

00:44:16.000 | Yeah, they never use them, they don't even care.

00:44:18.000 | But anyway, you could easily, without even buying high-end accessories,

00:44:23.000 | you could easily spend as much on accessories as you spend on the rifle itself.

00:44:27.000 | And that's not even getting to what Josh was talking about,

00:44:29.000 | which is a very important point.

00:44:32.000 | Oh, one more mention on the accessories.

00:44:34.000 | The sights, you probably eventually would want some kind of optic,

00:44:38.000 | some kind of sling, and then if you want to be able to use this thing

00:44:43.000 | more than 12 hours out of each day, you need some kind of flashlight on there.

00:44:47.000 | Very quickly it adds up.

00:44:49.000 | And that's all before you get into the very important element of training,

00:44:54.000 | which a weekend class is going to cost you probably at least $200 to $300,

00:44:58.000 | but it's very important, very essential.

00:45:01.000 | And ammunition can get expensive.

00:45:03.000 | Right now--I didn't check today, but let's just say in the vicinity of

00:45:08.000 | $20-something to $0.30 a round, maybe to $40 maybe.

00:45:11.000 | More than that.

00:45:12.000 | Sorry, that's old prices. I'm thinking 9mm.

00:45:14.000 | A thousand-round box of 5.56 is not cheap.

00:45:17.000 | Right, you're looking around $0.50 a round,

00:45:19.000 | and you can run through some money very quickly just doing some basic training.

00:45:24.000 | So personally, my perspective is I'm very passionate about the high-quality stuff,

00:45:33.000 | but if you're getting practical, your money is much better spent

00:45:38.000 | on things like decent accessories, training, practice,

00:45:43.000 | than on a more expensive gun.

00:45:45.000 | So a thousand-round bulk purchase of ammo if you buy just online

00:45:49.000 | and you're not going to a local gun store,

00:45:51.000 | probably under $350, but $300 to $350 for a thousand rounds of 5.56.

00:45:56.000 | So that's not cheap, but you can blow through some money

00:46:00.000 | because you go to a class, a good weekend class,

00:46:03.000 | they usually tell you to bring a thousand rounds.

00:46:05.000 | Yeah, you're at least going to use 500.

00:46:07.000 | Right, so ammo adds up.

00:46:09.000 | But the whole point of having the gun,

00:46:11.000 | if you're not just doing it as an investment--and again, that's where different things--

00:46:14.000 | but the whole point is to be able to effectively use it.

00:46:16.000 | As the old saying goes, "I have a lot more fear of a man with one gun

00:46:20.000 | who knows how to use it than a man with a closet full that doesn't know how to shoot."

00:46:24.000 | And again, going back to the distinction,

00:46:26.000 | there are a lot of people who just buy these things

00:46:28.000 | either because they want to protect themselves in the future

00:46:31.000 | or just because they think it's cool.

00:46:33.000 | But if you open up most gun safes,

00:46:36.000 | very few of the guns inside are actually ready to use.

00:46:39.000 | And there's nothing wrong with that.

00:46:41.000 | You're welcome to collect guns, but just don't fool yourself

00:46:44.000 | by thinking that once you buy the gun, you're done.

00:46:46.000 | You're just getting started.

00:46:47.000 | It doesn't make you invincible.

00:46:48.000 | That's the whole point which bugs me.

00:46:50.000 | People say, "Oh, the person has an AR-15."

00:46:52.000 | Watching the news over the last week,

00:46:54.000 | somehow I've seen advance on cable news that

00:46:57.000 | because an AR-15 is a rifle and advances and sends a round downrange

00:47:03.000 | at a higher velocity than a handgun,

00:47:06.000 | that a police officer with a handgun is somehow unable to go up against an AR-15.

00:47:11.000 | It just boggles the mind that these people are allowed to talk in public

00:47:15.000 | on this subject that they don't know about.

00:47:17.000 | An AR-15, there are a lot of ways to mess the thing up

00:47:20.000 | if you don't know how to use it.

00:47:22.000 | You can have malfunctions, and I'm trying to keep this simple and avoid politics.

00:47:30.000 | It's a touchy week for us.

00:47:32.000 | Basic accessories are, as you said,

00:47:35.000 | you got to make sure that you budget for sights.

00:47:38.000 | You can get cheap $20 strap-on, screw-on iron sights,

00:47:44.000 | and the gun may come with it.

00:47:45.000 | But you want to budget for a sighting mechanism.

00:47:47.000 | You want to budget for a sling.

00:47:49.000 | I think you want to budget for accessories

00:47:52.000 | because when you're out actually shooting it,

00:47:54.000 | most people, you go out on Sunday afternoon,

00:47:57.000 | you take it and load up a few magazines of ammo,

00:48:01.000 | put them on the table, you hand the gun around,

00:48:02.000 | let everyone shoot a couple of magazines, and that's about it.

00:48:06.000 | But if you're really going to use it,

00:48:07.000 | you need to plan for having the accessories that are going to be useful.

00:48:11.000 | So budget for the accessories, as always, and learn to shoot effectively.

00:48:15.000 | What did I miss?

00:48:17.000 | You have a good starter?

00:48:18.000 | Trying to keep it practical. That's it.

00:48:20.000 | We could talk the political angle all day.

00:48:22.000 | Now, go to YouTube.

00:48:23.000 | And that's the other thing that's just wonderful about YouTube

00:48:26.000 | is there is so much great training available on YouTube.

00:48:29.000 | There are qualified firearms trainers right now

00:48:34.000 | that put out information on YouTube,

00:48:36.000 | put out basically whole classes.

00:48:38.000 | If you want to learn how to build one, go to YouTube.

00:48:40.000 | You can run the video,

00:48:42.000 | and you can put the pieces together at your kitchen table.

00:48:45.000 | If you want to learn the techniques of shooting,

00:48:47.000 | if you want to have reviews, just go to YouTube.

00:48:50.000 | YouTube has been a wonderful source of information

00:48:54.000 | to allow enthusiasts to reach a wide audience

00:48:56.000 | with their specialized information.

00:48:58.000 | Yeah, and so just to come back to where we started in summary,

00:49:02.000 | the AR-15 may not be the best rifle today

00:49:06.000 | in whatever criteria you're looking at,

00:49:08.000 | but it is probably the one that everybody should own

00:49:11.000 | before they buy any others.

00:49:13.000 | And this debate rages across the Internet,

00:49:15.000 | forums, it just--it never ends.

00:49:17.000 | And manufacturers are constantly coming out with new designs

00:49:21.000 | and basically everything is about--

00:49:23.000 | the constant theme is how do we take the best elements

00:49:26.000 | of the AK and the AR and put them together in one gun?

00:49:29.000 | And there are some very well-done attempts at that.

00:49:32.000 | And frankly, I'd like to buy them all.

00:49:34.000 | But, you know, if you're going to be practical

00:49:37.000 | and you don't have a lot of money,

00:49:39.000 | don't get distracted by all that stuff.

00:49:41.000 | Focus on the basics and then be very careful

00:49:45.000 | because the bug may bite you,

00:49:47.000 | and when it bites you, it never lets go.

00:49:49.000 | So, you know, this hobby can become a money pit very easily.

00:49:54.000 | But, you know, we could talk a lot about what's better out there,

00:49:59.000 | but that's not the point.

00:50:01.000 | The point is what should you get,

00:50:03.000 | and if you put it all together, add it all up,

00:50:06.000 | if nothing else, if nothing else,

00:50:09.000 | the fact that it is such a widespread ownership,

00:50:14.000 | you know, millions and millions that are owned,

00:50:17.000 | the industry to support it is so big,

00:50:20.000 | the compatibility, interchangeability of the parts

00:50:24.000 | is just so universal that, you know,

00:50:29.000 | there is probably no other place to start.

00:50:32.000 | And then once you start there,

00:50:34.000 | then you look at your specific desires or needs

00:50:37.000 | and decide what fits those.

00:50:39.000 | But it doesn't get any easier than this one, if you ask me.

00:50:42.000 | Yeah. If you are wondering why the AR-15 is so popular,

00:50:45.000 | it's not because people who want to own an AR...

00:50:49.000 | It's not because AR-15 owners want to have blood on their hands

00:50:53.000 | and worship at the altar of thinking they're Rambo

00:50:56.000 | killing innocent people.

00:50:57.000 | Yeah, pretending to be soldiers.

00:50:58.000 | It's stupid.

00:50:59.000 | Of course there are idiots out there who probably do want war.

00:51:03.000 | There are idiots out there that want the world to fall apart

00:51:06.000 | so they can strap on their plate carrier

00:51:09.000 | and their mag pouches and go to war.

00:51:11.000 | Of course there are. There are always idiots.

00:51:13.000 | When you have millions of people living together,

00:51:15.000 | you always have a small fraction that are idiots.

00:51:17.000 | But the millions and millions of people that own an AR

00:51:20.000 | do it for the same reason that millions and millions of people

00:51:22.000 | own a Toyota Camry or a Toyota Tacoma

00:51:25.000 | or a Chevy pickup truck,

00:51:27.000 | that there is a usefulness with it,

00:51:29.000 | with the ubiquity, with the practicability,

00:51:33.000 | with the fact that one firearm can do so many things decently.

00:51:37.000 | The AR is not the best in the world at any one thing.

00:51:41.000 | I can't think of any one actual shooting application

00:51:44.000 | in which the AR-15 is the ultimate tool,

00:51:47.000 | other than the fact that it could be modified and adjusted

00:51:50.000 | to fit different applications.

00:51:51.000 | If you want to shoot long distance,

00:51:54.000 | a $300 hunting rifle can get you out to 700 yards,

00:51:58.000 | where an AR-15 can never get you to.

00:52:01.000 | It can get you there, but it's not easy.

00:52:04.000 | You think you can get an AR to 700 yards?

00:52:06.000 | Oh yeah, they do it all the time.

00:52:07.000 | You can get them to 1,000 yards, no problem.

00:52:09.000 | But you've got to know what you're doing.

00:52:10.000 | What's the terminal velocity of the bullet?

00:52:12.000 | Not much.

00:52:14.000 | It bounces off your cheek.

00:52:16.000 | Moving pretty slow.

00:52:17.000 | Okay. So forgive me, but the point is that

00:52:19.000 | if you want to do long-range shooting,

00:52:20.000 | you can get better guns to do long-range shooting.

00:52:25.000 | If you want to kill somebody more effectively,

00:52:28.000 | you get a bigger gun.

00:52:29.000 | Yeah, get a shotgun at close range.

00:52:31.000 | Nothing beats that.

00:52:32.000 | You will kill somebody with a shotgun

00:52:33.000 | with double-op buck at close range,

00:52:35.000 | or a .308 that'll go through somebody.

00:52:38.000 | If you want a gun that's easier to shoot, that's cheaper,

00:52:42.000 | there are options that fill all those things better than an AR,

00:52:46.000 | but there's nothing that does pretty good

00:52:48.000 | at just about all those things better than an AR,

00:52:51.000 | and that's why it's so popular.

00:52:54.000 | Yep. I'll admit that when I first got into this,

00:52:57.000 | I was interested in everything but ARs.

00:52:59.000 | I thought that was old news,

00:53:01.000 | and then I completely turned around.

00:53:03.000 | So you keep talking about technology.

00:53:04.000 | Last question for you.

00:53:05.000 | You keep talking about technology.

00:53:07.000 | What is the future?

00:53:11.000 | The military is very conflicted on that.

00:53:13.000 | There's a lot of stops and starts in their efforts

00:53:16.000 | to find the next generation of weapons,

00:53:19.000 | and there's talk about things like caseless ammunition.

00:53:24.000 | There's things like that,

00:53:25.000 | but honestly there's nothing on the horizon

00:53:27.000 | that's really obviously going to replace this stuff.

00:53:30.000 | So what they keep coming back to is just modifications,

00:53:34.000 | but it's the same basic concept.

00:53:36.000 | In the civilian world, I don't see anything else.

00:53:40.000 | Again, if your intention is to have a gun

00:53:43.000 | that does certain things better, there are options out there.

00:53:47.000 | Unfortunately, they cost a lot of money.

00:53:49.000 | All the guns that I want to buy are over $2,000.

00:53:52.000 | I was going to say, for me, the bullpup,

00:53:55.000 | all of the cool new bullpup designs.

00:53:57.000 | Yeah. My current obsession--

00:54:02.000 | Explain what a bullpup is.

00:54:04.000 | A bullpup is quickly--

00:54:07.000 | it takes the action of the gun,

00:54:08.000 | where it actually loads and ejects the rounds.

00:54:10.000 | The chamber.

00:54:11.000 | Okay. Yeah, it takes the chamber,

00:54:13.000 | and it moves it from in front of the grip

00:54:15.000 | to behind the grip.

00:54:16.000 | So essentially what that means is that

00:54:18.000 | for the same barrel length,

00:54:19.000 | it cuts about 10 inches off the overall length of the weapon.

00:54:22.000 | Makes it more compact, moves the weight back,

00:54:24.000 | makes it easier to hold up on your shoulder.

00:54:26.000 | Just frankly better in many ways in terms of using the gun.

00:54:30.000 | Unfortunately, because of the smaller market

00:54:32.000 | and maybe other factors in the manufacturing process,

00:54:35.000 | it's still pretty expensive.

00:54:36.000 | I'm not sure if you can get much below--

00:54:39.000 | I don't know, definitely over $1,000,

00:54:41.000 | and some of the nicer ones are closer to $2,000.

00:54:44.000 | But that may be the future.

00:54:47.000 | Next generation is more emphasis on that

00:54:50.000 | because there are a lot of benefits

00:54:52.000 | when you're talking about tactical applications.

00:54:55.000 | But I don't see groundbreaking technology.

00:54:58.000 | Perhaps in the manufacturing process,

00:55:00.000 | there'll be some improvements.

00:55:02.000 | But I don't see it yet.

00:55:05.000 | Well, hopefully we've given you just something--

00:55:08.000 | it's hard to go wrong in the AR marketplace,

00:55:10.000 | especially if you go purchase from a known quantity

00:55:13.000 | or a known manufacturer.

00:55:15.000 | You can--just about any brand that you recognize,

00:55:18.000 | you're going to be fine.

00:55:19.000 | And it is a really, really valuable platform.

00:55:22.000 | One quick thing on the pricing,

00:55:24.000 | because I probably didn't make it clear.

00:55:26.000 | You can buy an entry-level complete rifle

00:55:28.000 | for probably $500, maybe a little less, a little more.

00:55:31.000 | But if you want something with a little bit better features,

00:55:35.000 | then you can get the same price with better features

00:55:37.000 | by assembling the uppers and lowers.

00:55:39.000 | One of the common websites-- did we mention the website?

00:55:41.000 | Sure.

00:55:42.000 | All right, Palmetto State Armory is the big player in that game.

00:55:45.000 | And you can go to their website, and you

00:55:47.000 | can get any variation you want.

00:55:49.000 | But they often have daily sales on these assembled uppers

00:55:52.000 | and assembled lowers.

00:55:53.000 | You don't have to buy them at the same time.

00:55:55.000 | You can wait for the deal on the one you want.

00:55:57.000 | But what you'll find very quickly is that the cheapest

00:56:00.000 | assembled guns, they generally limit

00:56:03.000 | your ability to accessorize.

00:56:05.000 | So the big thing, for example, is the handguard.

00:56:08.000 | You get these cheap plastic handguards,

00:56:10.000 | the brown things that look like they're still in Vietnam.

00:56:12.000 | And you can't really mount anything on those

00:56:14.000 | very easily, whereas an upgraded handguard, if you do it

00:56:17.000 | yourself, it'll cost some money.

00:56:20.000 | But when you get it assembled from PSA,

00:56:24.000 | it's about the same price.

00:56:26.000 | Other elements, like the stock, a nicer stock,

00:56:29.000 | or-- that's probably the big ones,

00:56:31.000 | the handguard and the stock-- or even the barrel quality.

00:56:34.000 | Actually, I like the idea of stainless steel barrels,

00:56:37.000 | so I don't have to worry too much about rust.

00:56:39.000 | You may get a better barrel for the same price.

00:56:41.000 | So I'm not sure how you can get below that $450 to $500

00:56:45.000 | mark with a complete rifle, but without building it yourself.

00:56:50.000 | And you probably don't want to save that much,

00:56:52.000 | but you can get more for your money by going that route,

00:56:56.000 | you know, separate the upper from the lower.

00:56:59.000 | So that's my recommendation.

00:57:01.000 | Check out Palmer's Armor.

00:57:02.000 | And the biggest thing I would say,

00:57:04.000 | if you're not familiar with it, just ask around.

00:57:07.000 | Find a buddy who has one and go shoot it.

00:57:10.000 | And get over the fear of it, and then ask them for advice.

00:57:14.000 | Go to a gun show.

00:57:15.000 | If you go to a gun show, go to a gun shop.

00:57:17.000 | Go to a local gun shop.

00:57:18.000 | That's what they're there for, is to help you

00:57:21.000 | with those decisions.

00:57:23.000 | You're not going to be Rambo.

00:57:24.000 | You're going to be owning a quality and useful,

00:57:28.000 | very versatile rifle, which, hey, as an American,

00:57:32.000 | you should.

00:57:34.000 | Thank you for listening.

00:57:35.000 | You've honored me with your time and attention,

00:57:38.000 | and I'm grateful for that.

00:57:40.000 | And I hope that I've effectively served you today

00:57:42.000 | with some ideas and strategies and tactics and techniques

00:57:45.000 | and tools that will help move you towards your goals.

00:57:49.000 | Before you go, three simple requests.

00:57:52.000 | One, if there's an idea that's been helpful to you

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00:57:59.000 | Listening does lead to learning, but learning,

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00:58:07.000 | It's action that leads to a life change.

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00:58:36.000 | is one of the most effective ways for you to learn

00:58:39.000 | and for you to cement your learning.

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RPF0534-Friendly_Advice_To_Help_You_Buy_Your_First_AR15_Rifle