Washington Post editor claims AR-15 was ‘invented for Nazi infantrymen’

A senior editor at the Washington Post sparked outrage online after tweeting on Thursday that the rifle used in the horrific mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, this week was “invented for Nazi infantrymen.”

Marc Fisher tweeted on Thursday: “Invented for Nazi infantrymen, further developed by the US military, the AR-15 was the Texas school shooter’s weapon of choice…”

Fisher then linked to a 2018 article that he wrote in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

He wrote in the article that the AR-15, which was the rifle also used in mass shootings in Las Vegas; Newtown, Connecticut; and San Bernardino, California, “is a descendant of the machine guns Nazi infantrymen used against Soviet forces in World War II.”

Twitter users supportive of gun ownership rights blasted Fisher, accusing him of making an incendiary comparison. Some also noted that the AR-15, which was developed by ArmaLite, was first manufactured in the mid-1950s — a decade after the fall of the Nazis.

Marc Fisher, a Washington Post editor, posted a tweet on Thursday that read: “Invented for Nazi infantrymen, further developed by the US military, the AR-15 was the Texas school shooter’s weapon of choice…” Roy Rochlin

Invented for Nazi infantrymen, further developed by the US military, the AR-15 was the Texas school shooter’s weapon of choice…. https://t.co/Pw3AwI9pbc

— Marc Fisher (@mffisher) May 26, 2022

“An amazing reach by the Washington Post,” tweeted Ian Miles Cheong.

“While it’s true that the weapon is a descendent of the Sturmgewehr-44 it’s an incredible reach to even mention it,” Cheong wrote.

“Clearly designed to inflame emotions to call for overly emotional people to want to ban one of the most ubiquitous and widely available ARs.”

The AR-15 was used to carry out the May 14 mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo that killed 10 black people. AP

Others cast doubt on the accuracy of Fisher’s tweet.

“He’s probably referring to the German StG44 or ‘Sturmgewehr’ which translates to Assault Rifle and was a direct inspiration for the piston-operated AK-47, not the American M-16 which features a gas system,” tweeted one Twitter user.

“This is a bad faith attempt to conflate the two.”

Twitter users noted that the AR-15 was manufactured by an American company a decade after the fall of Nazi Germany. AP

The rifle used by the alleged gunman in Uvalde, Salvador Ramos, was obtained legally after he passed a background check, according to law enforcement officials.

The shooting has once again reignited fierce national debate over US gun laws.