The perpetrator of the killings in Maine, US, which murdered at least 22 people, utilized an AR-15 rifle. This is the semi-automatic weapon used by terrorist Abdesalem Lassoued to kill two Swedes in Brussels last week.
Oct 26 (Telegraph News) — “The AR-15 is a weapon from the 1950s of which there are now many variants,” Nils Duquet, director of the Flemish Peace Institute, previously explained to our editors: “In the United States it is a popular weapon for civilians. Since it is quite light, it is not the most difficult weapon to handle.”
Although there is also a fully automatic variant, only the semi-automatic version is for sale in our country. And that is only for permit holders. Abdesalem Lassoued, who stayed in our country illegally, can therefore only have been touched there illegally. “I assume that he acquired it in the criminal environment of Brussels,” said Duquet. “The trade there takes place through criminal connections. You must know someone who has a weapon or can touch it. For example, there has been talk of weapons hidden in garages for some time. We know that this man had some connections in the criminal environment, but how extensive his network was is a mystery.”
Although AR-15s are still quite exceptional in our country, they have been used several times in the United States for ‘mass shootings’ (shootings with four or more victims). According to an analysis by The Washington Post, ten of the seventeen deadliest shootings in the US before the start of 2023 involved the use of an AR-15. The gunman who killed as many as 60 people at a Las Vegas concert in 2017 used one, as did the gunman who struck Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 (killing 28).
According to American experts, the ‘popularity’ of the AR-15 is due to the specific properties of the weapon: it is shorter than a baseball bat and lighter than a bowling ball, they say. “It is also affordable, relatively easy to handle and the soft recoil makes it easy to aim. “It also has a scope on it, like a flashlight on the front, kind of like a tactical light,” Scott Sweetow, a former FBI agent who specializes in weapons, said after the Lewiston shootings. “The shooter also had several magazines attached to each other. Clearly equipped to kill people.”