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34 Law Enforcement Technology April 2014 www.officer.com F I R E A R M S TA C T I C S L aw enforcement officers are joining the ranks of hobbyists who build their own carbines. For law enforcement professionals, this is more than a hobby—it's a job skill. The benefit is even more important: If I can build one, I can be proactive with routine maintenance and I can troubleshoot problems, even before they emerge. The AR-15 is a unique firearm. It uses a relatively uncomplicated lower receiver that traditionally is made of aluminum. The lower receiver connects to the pistol grip and buttstock assem- bly. It contains the trigger group and magazine well. The lower receiver con- nects to the upper receiver by a couple of sturdy pins. The upper receiver is also traditionally made from aluminum. The barrel and associated parts con- nect to the upper, while the bolt carrier group contains the firing pin and parts that lock and unlock the chamber. The design of the AR-15 is attrib- uted to Eugene Stoner, although his design submission was the .308 AR-1 version. The concept was brilliant and Stoner earned a Mt. Rushmore place in the list of greatest firearm design- ers, alongside John Moses Browning, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov and Gaston Glock. The AR-15 uses an impinged gas system where gases are bled from the barrel back to the bolt, through the car- rier key part of the bolt. The gas pres- sure unlocks the rotating bolt during this portion of the cycle. This operation has advantages of reliability and fairly good accuracy. Under General Curtis LaMay, the AR-15 was adopted by the Air Force as the M-16, which eventually led to it becoming the most recognized rifle profile in history. Dave Dunlap, CEO of Precision Reflex Inc., stab I were talking about General LaMay at SHOT Show in January. I mentioned I was working on an article about building an AR-15 and asked him if there was anything readers should know. Dunlap told me that a lot of surplus AR-15s have found their way into police agency inventories. They require careful inspection and working knowledge of parts compatibility. Precision Reflex Inc. is where I go for my scope mounts and a game-changer B Y L I N D S E Y B E R T O M E N Building an AR-15 LET_34-38_FirearmsTactics0414.indd 34 3/20/14 11:13 AM