Civilian Version Of Latest, Powerful US Army Rifle Being Sold: Report

• A gun company is marketing a civilian version of a powerful, new US army rifle.
• An analyst said that the gun could help mass shooters become "a long-range sniper with an AR-15-style gun," The Daily Beast reported.
• The gun has become commercially available at a time of increased calls for gun control following a series of mass shootings.

A gun company is marketing a powerful new rifle to civilians, a report says, amid ongoing debates about gun control following a string of deadly mass shootings.

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SIG Sauer's MCX-Spear is the civilian version of the US Army's NGSW-R (Next Generation Squad Weapon-Rifle), The Daily Beast reported.

The company said that the gun was "the most innovative and advanced AR platform in the world," which is a "near match" to its NGSW-R submission, which won the contract for the US Army program this year.

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"The MCX-Spear was developed with direct input from US warfighters to provide more power, distance, and accuracy to replace the current M4 rifle platform," the company's website says.

In a press release, Ron Cohen, president & CEO of SIG Sauer, Inc, said that the MCX-Spear going on sale was "a rare opportunity for passionate consumers to own a piece of history."

He added that the gun is chambered in 277 SIG Fury, the commercial variant of the 6.8 x 51 hybrid military round available in the company's hybrid case technology submitted to the US Army NGSW program, per the company website.

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"The revolutionary SIG FURY ammunition is the most technically advanced leap in smalls arms ammunition in over 150 years, this turns your intermediate rifle platform into magnum performance without the added weight or length while still using 20-round magazines," Cohen said.

The gun can tear through body armor at extended ranges, according to The Daily Beast.

"It'll shoot through almost all of the bulletproof vests worn by law enforcement in the county right now," Ryan Busse, a former firearms company executive and senior policy analyst with the Giffords Law Center, told the outlet.

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"This is a weapon that could defeat any body armor, any planned body armor that we know of in the future," then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told the Army Times in 2019, per The Daily Beast. "This is a weapon that can go out at ranges that are unknown today."

The gun has become commercially available in a year that has seen a series of high-profile mass shootings around the country.

Busse told The Daily Beast that while AR-15s are lighter and more maneuverable than MCX-Spears, which might make them favorable to mass shooters in enclosed locations such as classrooms, bullets from the latter can hit much harder over greater distances.

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Busse said the gun could help mass shooters become "a long-range sniper with an AR-15-style gun."

One of the dealers said that the arms manufacturer sent out 2,500 and 5,000 of the weapons, and they sold out quickly, despite the hefty manufacturer's suggested price tag of $7,999, The Daily Beast reported.

A customer service representative for SIG Sauer told the outlet that more weapons would soon be shipped to gun stores at a lower price than the "first editions" models.

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"I know it's coming," the representative told the outlet. "We're trying to get these things out as fast as we can. Get as many guns as we can out the door."

A representative for Sig Sauer did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

SIG Sauer also makes the semiautomatic AR-15-style rifle used in the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016 that left 49 people dead.

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Busse told the Daily Beast that it was unsurprising to see the gunmaker marketing a civilian version of the weapon, as this would massively increase its profit margins with much lower effort.

He noted that it is often a "pain" for gun manufacturers to meet military requirements.

"What's very profitable for them is to sell that gun to the US consumers," Busse said. "Consumers don't demand the sort of on-time deliveries and all the other expensive stuff that the military does."

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He noted that linking the firearm to the military was a large part of the advertising.

"It's like, 'Buy the gun that all the military special operators use…forget basic training, just become a military badass," he said.

High-powered AR-15-style weapons used in several recent mass shootings, including in Buffalo, New York, Uvalde, Texas, and Highland Park, Illinois, that left 38 dead were all legally purchased in the US.

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The Highland Park gunman fired off more than 70 rounds from a rooftop onto the July Fourth parade-goers below during the rampage in the Chicago suburb.

President Joe Biden recently called for a ban on "assault weapons," stating that the nation is "awash in weapons of war," Reuters reported.

"Assault weapons need to be banned," he said."I'm determined to ban these weapons again."

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House Democrats have been working to advance a bill to ban certain semiautomatic weapons in response to the recent spate of mass shootings using such weapons.

Editor's Correction: This article has been changed to reflect Insider's editorial style that does not refer to semiautomatic weapons as "assault rifles" and to clarify the firearm's capabilities. Comments by President Joe Biden on the need for gun control have been added.