BTW isn’t “AR-15” as such still a trademark of Colt (entirely separate of being off-patent), and the popular culture has just been pulling a Xerox/Kleenex on it? In which case the National Gun would have to be “the rifle with the direct-gas-impingement action designed by Eugene Stoner for Armalite, chambered in 5.56x45mm”, which is a damn mouthful…
The Daisy BB gun.
Whatever pistols Roy Rogers had, of course.
He was half American.
You have something there.
For some silly reason, the British didn’t want to keep selling Brown Bess muskets to us after we declared our independence. 
We started getting a lot of older muskets from France. The first batch of these happened to be manufactured in Charleville, France, and so our founding fathers continued to refer to them by the incorrect name of Charleville muskets even when they weren’t made at Charleville. Even today they are called Charleville muskets even though the French never, ever, called them that.
We started making our own muskets at Springfield Armory, and the first muskets produced there (the Springfield Model 1795 Musket ) was basically a copy of the French Charleville musket.
The Springfield Model 1795 was slightly more accurate than the Brown Bess, or since they were both smooth bores perhaps I should say that the Springfield was slightly less inaccurate… you weren’t hitting something that you were aiming at past 75 yards or so with either one. The Springfield also had a slight advantage in range.
Since it was our first national military weapon, and also because it was actually better than the British musket [1], I therefore nominate the 1795 Springfield as our National Gun.
[1] Technically credit goes to the French for that, we just copied their musket
Yes. A lot of folks think that the AR in AR-15 stands for Assault Rifle, but it actually an abbreviation for ArmaLite. The folks at ArmaLite ran into some financial trouble around 1960 or so and sold the AR-15 trademark to Colt. The patents expired in 1977 but Colt still owns the trademark.
Ironically, Colt only uses the AR designation for the civilian version of the weapon, which is not actually an assault rifle.
In another thread not far away, @carnivorousplant wrote:
I would not include semi automatic .22 rifles, kids have been shooting those for a hundred years.
If I understand the purpose of this thread here and what was written there correctly (probably not in both cases, I fear, but you lot are a patient group) this toy rifles deserve a special mention for outstanding didactical indoctrination.
Then again, I am not sure I grasp what a “National Gun of the USA” is supposed to mean.
I will go for the French Charleville Musket.
In 1776, with the revolution against British under way, the United States were desperate for muskets. That spring Congress sent Silas Deane to France to plead for assistance in the form of arms, equipment, and financing. Looking to even the score against Britain, France came to the Americans side with shiploads of muskets. Because were not officially at war with Britain until 1778, a fake corporation had to be set up to mask the French government’s direct involvement. In addition, ship log destinations were falsified to hid the fact the muskets were being shipped to American ports. Because of the British presence on the high seas, some French ships had to sail to the West Indies, drop off their cargo, and American vessels then picked the muskets up.
In studying the numerous surviving muskets of French manufacture but with U.S. surcharge markings, the vast majority are the 1766 Model with the button style ramrod. Contrary to popular belief, the flared trumpet style ramrod was not used with the 1766 model. So dominant was the presence of the 1766 model in the American forces, that when U.S. began to mass manufacture its own army muskets, the first model off the arsenal at Springfield in 1795 was an exact copy of the 1766 Charleville.
Dr Venkman, in Ghostbusters II: “She’s French. You know.”
Yeah, however, one item should never be forgotten about the American Revolution, if the French had not helped (and it was with a lot of guns and ammo besides war ships) we now would be glued to our monitors to see the King’s coronation…
No contributions but, at the moment, I’d vote for the Springfield 1975 or the Colt Peacemaker.
The first, since it helped to create the country (easy enough). The latter because Old West policing became a cultural motto for the country and its place on a planet with no laws and no one keeping the peace. Feeling that it’s our place to step up and put on the badge has been a defining (positive or negative as you’ll have it) character of the country since the 1960s.
I’d probably go with the Springfield, though, since the message of the latter would piss off most of the planet.
If we ignore guns, though, I’d note that we already have the national symbol of the bundle of arrows, and that’s probably a better message than you’re going to get out of any guns, to-date.
Young people, me included, had BB guns then .22 rifles to shot at cans with and learn not to shoot each other. Obviously, instruction from our fathers preceded having a gun. Rural Americans actually shoot and eat things, although the snakes my friends and I shot at my grandfather’s farm were not eaten.
This is very alien to me, but I acknowledge it whith interest. I hope you do not interpret my insistance as pecking on you, I do not mean it that way. It’s just that you made the argument about the .22 yesterday and it struck me as different from what I grew up with.
Oh no, I did not consider that pecking. I am in central Arkansas, I am curious where you grew up.
You’ll put your eye out!
In Spain (the first 17 years). I lived mostly in Berlin since 1982. Completely different attitude to guns in both places. I have never touched a gun in my life. Actually no: I had one once in my hands, unloaded, a couple of seconds. I was surprised how heavy it felt.
Just as an aside: a bundle of wooden rods is actually called fasces in Latin (plurale tantum: it has no singular), fascio littorio in Italian and it is a fascist symbol (it is actually the ethymological origin of the word fascism). In Spanish history the link between the rods and arrows and fascism is even more clear. That is the flag of the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalistas (FE de las JONS), a fascist organisation founded in 1934, two years before the Civil War began:
I am not claiming that the US symbol is fascist! I am just stating that this symbol has fascist connotations in other countries, where it can lead you into trouble.
I fired pretty much everything available in the military arsenal of handheld/bipod/tripod weapons when I was in the service. For my money it’s the M-1 Carbine, followed by the M-14. For close range, the M1911 Colt packs a wallop, the only drawback being the small capacity.
I vaguely recall a cavalry charge against Japanese in the Philippines. US soldiers on horses with 1911s.
Why do you list the M-1 carbine? .30 pistol rounds, given to truck drivers and artillery crews, although I have seen many pictures of soldiers and Marines carrying them in the Pacific theater.
The most widely used police pistol in the U.S. seems to be the Glock 22, but something seems off about naming it the country’s National Gun.