Does This AR-15 Video Disprove Orlando Shooting Conspiracy Theories?
A now-viral video originally posted to Facebook featuring a man casually hiding a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle in his waistband may refute some conspiracy theories about the Orlando shooting.
On June 12, an ISIS-inspired gunman entered the Pulse nightclub in the Florida city and killed at least 49 innocent patrons and wounded many more in the deadliest mass shooting incident in U.S. history.
As the Inquisitr previously detailed, conspiracy theorists have questioned whether one gunman could have carried out this atrocity. Some gun experts claim it seems theoretically impossible for a lone attacker to be responsible for the carnage in such a short period of time.
Separately, questions have also been raised as to how the gunman could have initially just walked into the nightspot with a rifle without anyone noticing.
A Facebook video posted by a man who identifies himself as Rob Buck suggests that hiding an AR-15 on your person is apparently relatively easy.
“For the conspiracy theorist that say it can’t be done,” Buck posted in a message accompanying the video, which has received 16 million views so far.
Chilling video shows how easy it is to hide an AR-15 on your person https://t.co/pEd2lSB1KT pic.twitter.com/97gz42jmVK
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) June 18, 2016
The video shows Buck walking normally in his living room before lifting up his shirt and pulling out an AR-15 rifle from his jeans. Producing additional ammo from his pockets, he appears to reload with fresh magazines seven times, before pulling out a pistol and reloading two times.
“264 rounds,” he says as the video concludes. Watch the footage below and draw your own conclusions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCzeWi4liiI
“In just over a minute, Buck is seen wielding the semi-automatic assault rifle and quickly attaching and removing several high-capacity magazines before pulling out a handgun and doing the same…Buck’s intention appears to be to show that an AR-15 style rifle be concealed under clothes in public — and that one prepared individual can also carry enough ammunition to commit a massacre,” the Daily Mail explained.
The Orlando mass shooting at Pulse immediately reopened the national debate over additional gun control regulations, with politicians such as President Obama and Hillary Clinton insisting that more firearms restrictions would preempt future terrorist attacks. The president wants to ban the AR-15 and other so-called assault weapons which the White House has described as “weapons of war.”
“The National Rifle Association has taken to calling the AR-15 ‘America’s rifle,’ and cites the AR-15 and its many variants as the most popular weapon in the U.S. The federal government doesn’t keep track of how many AR-15s and AR-15 look-alikes are circulating, though experts told the New York Times that several million are ‘easily’ in gun safes across the country, despite the federal ban on AR-15s and other ‘assault weapons’ from 1994 to 2004,” KLEW TV recalled.
It turns out, however, that the Orlando shooter carried out the terrorist attack with a Sig Sauer MCX rather than an AR-15 as was originally reported by the news media. “Omar Mateen used a Sig Sauer MCX assault-style rifle and had a Glock 9mm semiautomatic pistol. Mateen was able to purchase the guns legally despite at having been on a terror watch list at one point,” CNN revealed.
Presumably, the MCX could also be concealed in a similar manner, but perhaps that will be the subject of a follow-up video.
“Sig Sauer’s MCX features a side-folding stock that shortens the length of the rifle, allowing easier concealment, and a barrel that can be fitted with a silencer. The MCX was ‘engineered from the ground up to be short, light and silenced,’ according to a Sig Sauer promotional brochure for the rifle,” Reuters noted.
According the Bearing Arms website, the Sig Sauer weapon “sometimes utilizes STANAG magazines common to more than 60 different firearms, but otherwise has no major parts that interface with AR-15s in any way, shape or form.”
“Rob Buck posted a video on Facebook showing just how easy it is to conceal a rifle and multiple clips of ammunition. The Marine vet also showed how quick a rifle can be loaded, leaving little doubt that Mateen alone could have killed 49 people and wound another 53,” BizPacReview summarized.
[Photo by Rich Pedroncelli/AP]
