Tonight on The Readout.

I have a message for Joe Biden and Bay of America.

If you want to take everyone's AR-15 in America, why don't you swing by my office in Washington,

DC and start with this one?

Come and take it.

Wow, Republicans celebrate the AR-15.

Despite the fact that mass murderers are routinely using them for their intended purpose, which is to quickly kill people,

including children.

Tonight, how that weapon of war became so powerful politically for the right, and how Republicans are able to suppress gun control measures,

the vast majority of Americans, including gun owners, support.

Plus, how the right is using the Nashville mass murder to put a target on the backs of transgender Americans.

And the battle over TikTok will Congress actually ban the widely popular app, and is it any more of a danger than Elon's Twitter or Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook?

I will ask one of the Congress members who supports the ban.

But we begin tonight with what America means for people.

The symbols we latch onto are flag, the bald eagle, even good old apple pie.

These things matter to people.

But there is a new symbol taking over America.

It is much more sinister, but just as sacred.

And that is the AR-15.

Republicans like to say their beloved AR-15 is not a weapon of war.

But it absolutely is.

It was designed as a soldier's rifle in the late 1950s, and soon became standard issue for US troops in Vietnam.

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