According to police, three different mass shootings were carried out with military-style assault weapons over this past weekend. On the morning of September 28, 2025, a 40-year-old gunman drove his truck into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, during Sunday service and opened fire with an “assault rifle” before setting the church on fire. He killed four people — two from gunfire — and wounded eight others.
Authorities have not yet identified the make, model, or caliber of the rifle used, but the suspected gunman, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, may have been armed with an AR-15 — the civilian version of the U.S. military’s M16 and M4 rifles — due to his familiarity with the platform and its prevalence on the market. Just over a month ago, another attacker primarily used an AR-15 to kill two children and wound 18 others, as well as three adults, at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Michigan.
The night before the attack in Grand Blanc, at around 9:30pm, a 40-year-old gunman opened fire from a boat upon the American Fish Company, a waterfront bar in Southport, North Carolina, killing three people and wounding five others before fleeing. The U.S. Coast Guard later apprehended the suspect, who had reportedly used a short-barreled AR-15 with a folding stock, a scope, and a silencer.
A third mass shooting occurred hours later at the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino in Eagle Pass, Texas, where a 34-year-old gunman shot and killed two people and wounded five others before he was apprehended. According to local news, the Maverick County sheriff confirmed that the suspect fired 17 rounds from a “.223-caliber rifle” — the caliber most commonly associated with AR-15s.
understanding ar-style assault weapons
Like the Grand Blanc shooter, the suspected gunman in Southport is a former Marine who served in Iraq and likely received ample training to use AR-style weapons. While the military’s M16 and M4 are capable of firing automatically, allowing soldiers to fire multiple shots with a single trigger pull, the AR-15s sold to civilians are semi-automatic, requiring a separate trigger pull for each shot.
But in all other respects, the rifles are identical. They use the same gas operating system, the same plastic and aluminum components to reduce weight, and the same controls. They can fire the same bullets, which travel three times as fast as 9mm handgun bullets and do significantly more damage to the human body. Finally, they have light recoil impulses — making them more accurate, especially in rapid fire — and are quick to reload using magazines that hold anywhere from 10 to 100 rounds of ammunition.
aTTACKS ON RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS INVOLVING AR-15s
The attack in Grand Blanc, which lasted roughly eight minutes, is the latest in which a gunman targeted a religious institution in the U.S. with an assault weapon.
- The perpetrator of the August 2025 mass shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School fired 116 rounds from an AR-15, in addition to three shotgun shells, in less than four minutes.
- In June 2025, a gunman armed with an AR-15 and a pistol opened fire upon the CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan, wounding one churchgoer.
- In March 2023, an assailant shot and killed three students and three teachers at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, using a Lead Star Arms AR-15, a pistol, and another semi-automatic rifle.
- In April 2019, a gunman armed with a Smith & Wesson AR-15 killed one person and wounded three others at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California.
- In October 2018, a gunman killed 11 people and wounded six others at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, using a Colt AR-15.
- In November 2017, gunman used a Ruger AR-15 to kill 25 people and wound another 20 at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
These mass shootings represent a fraction of the dozens committed with AR-15s and other military-style assault weapons across the U.S., turning once-peaceful locales, including restaurants, casinos, schools, grocery stores, shopping malls, music festivals, and dance clubs into war zones. To learn more, click here.