Gloomy Tunes: Armalite Rifle, Gang of Four

The AR-15, the rifle that Nikolas Cruz used to kill 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Wednesday, is also, according to the NRA, “America’s Favorite Rifle.”  Leaving aside the discomfort you might feel about any rifle being called “America’s favorite,” it was one of the weapons classified as an assault weapon by the  1994 assault weapon ban, a law the GOP (in some potted, NRA-sponsored idea of “Freedom!”™)  repealed ten years later. That act made it easier for the 19-year-old Cruz  to get his hands on the AR-15 than a beer or a rental car.

The “AR” does not stand for Assault Rifle, but Armalite Rifle, for the original manufacturer. Here’s Gang of Four performing today’s Gloomy Tune, “Armalite Rifle,” from their 1979 Yellow EP. Over a thrashy, martial beat, Andy Gill lists the gun’s selling points: easy to shoot, easy to break down, easy to hide. But the band disapproves, “it’ll do you damage,” the sing as the song lurches to the finish.

Steven Mirkin

Steven Mirkin’s diverse career has taken him from politics to pop culture to high art, offering him a front row seat to some of the most fascinating events and personalities of our time: writing speeches, fundraising appeals and campaign materials for Ed Koch, John Heinz and independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson; chronicling the punk/new wave scenes in New York and London; interviewing musicians such as Elton John, John Lydon and Buck Owens; profiling modern masters Julian Schnabel, Paul Schrader and Jonathan Safran Foer; and writing for TV shows including 21, The Chamber, Let's Make A Deal, and Rock Star: INXS.