American Family Association official Sandy Rios discussed the need for AR-15s to remain legal on her radio show on Monday, saying that Donald Trump supporters could have used AR-15s to protect themselves from violent protesters at a receny rally in San Jose, California.
Omar Mateen, the shooter responsible for the massacre in Orlando, used a Sig Sauer MCX, which is “similar to an AR-15.”
“The semi-automatic AR-15, which is routinely confused as being a machine gun or fully automatic weapon, is one of the most popular rifles in the United States and, of course, a lot of discussion is, you know, why would anybody need that?” Rios said, later adding, “I think the fact that we are in great danger might be a reason why we would need it.”
Rios said police officers “need to be armed at least as well as the drug cartels, as the Islamists, as the, you know, whoever is getting guns. They need to have at least the ability to have the same kind of firepower as these would-be killers. And I think they know the argument could be made for American citizens. We have to be able to protect ourselves, obviously.”
She continued, “Remember those protests at a Donald Trump rally in California where a man in a wheelchair was attacked, a woman was attacked, not attacked, but she was hit by eggs in the face and surrounded by a mob of men? It’s just, I do think, you know, people are understanding. That’s probably why 30,000 AR-15s sold since the Orlando shooting.”
