SIG MCX

The SIG MCX is a weapon series designed and manufactured by SIG Sauer, featuring a short-stroke gas piston system, carried over from the SIG MPX submachine gun. It is made in both semi-automatic and selective fire configurations. It is available in rifle, short-barreled rifle, and pistol (generally considered a compact carbine) configurations.

Quotes

2016

• Not just another AR, but an entirely new rifle platform and complete weapons system - fully configurable for any scenario or environment.
  • SIG Sauer product catalogue, 2016 Complete Systems Provider. SIG Sauer (2016). Retrieved on September 28, 2018.; Understanding the Sig Sauer MCX Assault Rifle Used in the Orlando Mass Shooting. Violence Policy Center (June 2016). Retrieved on September 28, 2018.

• When Omar Mateen embarked on his deadly rampage at a gay nightclub in Orlando early Sunday, he carried an assault-type rifle called a Sig Sauer MCX, law enforcement sources tell NPR.
  The MCX is described by its manufacturer as "the ultimate modern hunting rifle" that is "engineered from the ground up to be short, light and silenced."
  It is similar in appearance and lethality to the AR-15, the name given to a very popular family of rifles made and sold by nearly two dozen companies. Law enforcement sources call the MCX an "AR-15 equivalent made by a different manufacturer." ...
  Despite its similarities, the MCX is also fundamentally different from an AR-15. Its internal operating system — its method of propelling bullets from its chamber and cycling to the next round — works differently, and several gun experts contacted by NPR say they do not consider it to be part of the large family of AR-15 rifles.
  • Zarroli, Jim (June 13, 2016). "The Orlando Killer's Weapon Of Choice Was 'The Ultimate Hunting Rifle'". NPR. Retrieved on September 28, 2018. 

• Since the massacre in Orlando early Sunday morning, pro-gun pundits have come out in force to argue that the weapon used in the attack is not an assault rifle. The gun lobby prefers to call these weapons “modern sporting rifles,” euphemistic ammo it can fire in an ongoing semantic debate. But make no mistake: What the Orlando attacker used was a weapon of war. It was designed to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. Witness this harrowing audio captured by a bystander outside the Pulse nightclub in which Omar Mateen fires 24 shots in 9 seconds.
  According to a federal law enforcement official, the rifle Mateen used to murder and maim more than 100 people was a Sig Sauer MCX. Mateen legally purchased the weapon, similar to an AR-15, on June 4 in Port St. Lucie, Florida, near where he lived.
  • Follman, Mark (June 13, 2016). "This Is the Assault Rifle Used by the Orlando Mass Shooter". Mother Jones. Retrieved on October 20, 2018. 

• While aesthetically similar to and just as lethal as an AR-15, the MCX is internally a different beast, thus all but removing it from the AR-15 family of rifles. Yet while the weapon is different, the MCX and the AR-15 share the same design purpose: providing a highly portable, customizable, easy to operate and accurate rifle for the individual who possesses it.
  • Gibbons-Neff, Thomas (June 14, 2016). "The gun the Orlando shooter used was a Sig Sauer MCX, not an AR-15. That doesn’t change much". The Washington Post. Retrieved on September 28, 2018. 

• It was used to slaughter first graders at Sandy Hook, murder Batman fans at Colorado movie theater, kill county workers at a holiday party in San Bernardino. Now a descendant of the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle — a Sig Sauer MCX — has the dubious distinction of being the weapon of choice for a homosexual-hating gunman named Omar Mateen who is being blamed for the worst single-day mass shooting in U.S. history.
  • Siemaszko, Corky (June 15, 2016). "AR-15 Style Rifle Used in Orlando Massacre Has Bloody Pedigree". NBC News. Retrieved on September 28, 2018. 

• America has grown accustomed to military-style semi-automatic weapons such as the AR-15. It's not hard to see why: These firearms have been heavily marketed to gun owners. But at the same time, they're often the weapons of choice for mass murderers. In an all-too familiar pattern, Omar Mateen, the gunman in the Orlando nightclub massacre, used one of these weapons, Sig Sauer's MCX (a version of the AR-15 rifle), in his deadly attack on Sunday. The AR-15 has grown so popular that the pro-gun lobby National Rifle Association has termed it "America's rifle." The AR-15 and its variants have been used in a number of mass shootings, ranging from the Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school tragedy to the San Bernardino, California, attack in December.
  • Picchi, Aimee (June 15, 2016). "America's rifle: The marketing of assault-style weapons". CBS MoneyWatch (CBS News). Retrieved on September 28, 2018. 

• On July 20, 2012, a mass murderer killed 12 and wounded 58 others at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., using a Smith & Wesson M&P15. On Dec. 12, 2012, another mass murderer killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., using his mother's Bushmaster XM15-E2S. The letter and number suffixes belie a simple truth -- the guts of both guns look just like an M-16 or, as it is known for civilian use, an AR-15. OK, the M-16 can fire in fully automatic mode but otherwise, the same.
  In Orlando just this month, it was a similar type of semiautomatic assault weapon, a Sig Sauer MCX, that helped claim 49 lives.
  • Kingsbury, Alex (June 16 2016). "Meet the must-have Bling for Your Gun". Boston Globe. 

• And maybe as a result we learned that “assault rifle” should refer to a fully automatic gun that sprays many rounds with one trigger squeeze, while the semiautomatic variations (like that Sig Sauer) discharge one shot per trigger pull; or that this distinction separates guns designed for military use from those typically available to civilians; or that a term such as “AR-15-style” often refers more to a gun’s appearance than any precisely agreed-upon set of specific technical features.
  • Walker, Rob (December 30, 2016). "The Year in Nine Objects". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved on September 28, 2018. 

2017

• Here is a list of mass shootings in the U.S. that featured AR-15-style rifles during the last 35 years, courtesy of the Stanford Geospatial Center and Stanford Libraries and USA TODAY research:...
  June 12, 2016: Omar Mateen, 29, used an AR-15 style rifle (a Sig Sauer MCX), and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol to kill 49 people and injure 50 at an Orlando nightclub before he was killed.
  • Jansen, Bart; Cummings, William (November 8, 2017). "Why mass shooters are increasingly using AR-15s". USA Today. Retrieved on September 28, 2018. ; Cummings, William; Jansen, Bart (February 14, 2018). "Why the AR-15 keeps appearing at America's deadliest mass shootings". USA Today. Retrieved on September 28, 2018. 

2018

• Up until that point, the country’s deadliest mass shooting had occurred just a year prior at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where the perpetrator used an SIG MCX semi-automatic rifle — highly similar to AR-15s in aesthetic and purpose — to kill 49 people. Comparable weapons were also used at Sandy Hook Elementary School (27 dead) and a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church (25 dead).
  • Jenkins, Aric (February 15, 2018). "Many Mass Shootings in America Have 1 Thing in Common: AR-15 Rifles". Time. Retrieved on September 28, 2018. 

• Among the six deadliest mass shootings in the last six years, the only one not carried out with an AR-15 style rifle was the Orlando nightclub attack two years ago that left 49 dead. The gunman, Omar Mateen, had a Sig Sauer MCX semiautomatic rifle, which shares features with the AR-15, though it functions via a different semiautomatic design — and is just as deadly. All of these military-style semiautomatic weapons have something else in common. They have been heavily marketed as home-defense and marksmanship weapons, and their sales have been a major driver of profits for gun manufacturers over the past two decades.
  • Oppel Jr., Richard A. (February 15, 2018). "In Florida, an AR-15 Is Easier to Buy Than a Handgun". The New York Times. Retrieved on September 28, 2018. 

• These AR-15 style rifles have appeared in some of the deadliest shootings in the past few years, including a concert in Las Vegas, a nightclub in Orlando, a church in Texas and an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
  • Vitkovskaya, Julie; Martin, Patrick (February 16, 2018). "4 basic questions about the AR-15". The Washington Post. Retrieved on September 28, 2018. 

• AR-15-style rifles have become something of a weapon of choice for mass shooters. One was used last year to kill 26 people during Sunday morning church services in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and it was among the stockpile of firearms used a month earlier to kill 58 concertgoers in Las Vegas.
  AR-15-style rifles were also used at the shootings at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida; at an employee training in San Bernardino, California, and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
  • Lloyd, Whitney (February 16, 2018). "Why AR-15-style rifles are popular among mass shooters". ABC News. Retrieved on September 28, 2018. 

• AR-15-style rifles have been used in recent mass shootings at in Aurora, Colo.; Santa Monica and San Bernardino, Calif.; Orlando, Florida and now Parkland.
  • Drabold, Will; Fitzpatrick, Alex (February 20, 2018). "The Florida School Shooter Used An AR-15 Rifle. Here's What to Know About the Gun". Time. Retrieved on September 28, 2018. 

See also

• AR-15 style rifle
• Orlando nightclub shooting‎