What’s the hype with AR15 Breakdown pistol’s?  Is it just a fad or trend that will come and go like skinny jeans?  Hardly the case here.  The American Resistance™ “AR Breakdown Pistol” is the industry standard when it comes to ingenuity, quality, and customer service.  We’ve spent countless hours testing and developing the highest quality parts to ensure the most reliable weapon systems on the market.  Not only did we spend the time and effort to deliver high end custom built AR15’s with high end materials, we spent just as much time developing a quality assurance system to ensure the assembly and machining are done above and beyond industry standards.  All of our weapon systems are built to order.  There’s no assembly line production here.  Our lead armorer spent 9 years in the U.S. Marine Corps fine-tuning his “attention to detail”, and applies that working knowledge to every weapon he builds.  Regardless if it’s a “budget” build for $500 or high end $5000 custom weapon, the same care and quality attention are forged in every weapon built.

AR15’s have become the most popular DIY weapon in the world.  Just like any hobby out there, we get bored once we’ve mastered our task at hand.  The AR Breakdown Pistol keeps the ball rolling forward when it comes to creativity.  The AR platform is an ever-evolving machine.  With products like Cry Havoc Tactical’s QRB Barrel Takedown system, Law Tactical’s Folding Stock adapters, and SB Tactical’s Pistol Stabilizing braces, American Resistance™ has taken these great ideas intended for more simplistic applications, and applied them to a unified re-invention of the wheel.  5 years ago if you would have told your range friends that you had you AR15 in your center console of your vehicle that would accept the same magazine and ammo as your Glock19, they would have laughed you off the range.  Today, due to American ingenuity this concept has become a reality.

Why would you need a 9mm carbine that can shoot the same ammunition as your side arm with a 100+ yard effective range?  Aren’t most self-defense firefights  fought inside of 20 yards?  The Breakdown AR pistols are not intended to replace the weapon on your hip.  Each has its own specific application, and should be used accordingly.  When seconds count, and for immediate encounters, the side arm is your fastest, most effective tool.  If you don’t have 5 seconds to assemble your Breakdown AR, it makes much more sense to draw your handgun from your holster and defend yourself.  Lets put a scenario into perspective: You’re an educator and you’re either outside on the playground or in the gymnasium for gym class.  Both of these environments can potentially have well over 20 yards of distance between you and an active shooter, sometimes even closer to 100 yards.  Lets assume that an active shooter presents themselves as a threat and you have 30 yards of distance between yourself and the shooter.  With a traditional handgun like a Glock or even a revolver, this situation quickly becomes even more dangerous.  Once you have drawn your weapon, you’ve just presented yourself as the most important threat to the shooter.  With a traditional handgun, any shot outside of 15 yards can prove to be challenging, even for someone who trains fairly often with their weapon.  Stressful situations bring on tunnel vision, physical shaking, and a severe lack of “normal” thinking and/or brain function.  Having a weapon that has an effective range of 100+ yards, will make a 20-75 yard shot very simple.  Shooting across a gymnasium or playground just became something of ease, even for someone who isn’t a “professional” shooter.  Something else that most don’t factor in about active shooters, is whether they are using a shotgun, rifle, or handgun, you want to either match their firepower or out power them.  In this scenario, the chaos would be intense with crying, screaming, and running kids.  You WILL need your shots to be well placed and followed up in rapid succession to eliminate the threat without risking injury of your students.  Lets not forget the intimidation factor.  Most active shooters enjoy knowing that they have the power to control a bad situation.  When they see that you have an equal to, or greater weapon, you’ve just turn the tables on the mentality of your threat.  They’re now accessing you as an attacker on them, which will take away from their ability to control the situation.  Use your sidearm weapon to react to immediate threats, but if you’ve got distance and 3-5 seconds, assemble your carbine and control the situation from a much safer distance.

Along with having superior firepower, you will still need to be proficient both with your weapon(s) of choice, and mental preparedness.  There’s many companies and individuals out there that offer training in the exact scenario presented above.  However, no one specializes in this type of training like our personal recommendation: Tactical Response Solutions LLC.  Owner/operator Brian Stutes is a U.S. Navy Vet, and specializes in training civilians, educators, and law enforcement officers in active shooters situations. [email protected]

Now let’s cover why the Breakdown Pistol is the safest weapon to put in the classroom or church pew.  We understand that this isn’t a weapon that you’re going to carry on your hip.  We’ve got our Glock for that.  This weapon will be in a locked desk drawer, discreet backpack under the educator’s desk, or even a lunch box.  First, let’s assume that for what ever reason, a young student (10 years old) gets a hold of your Glock handgun.  It doesn’t take any training for that young person to pick up that handgun and pull the trigger, injuring/killing themselves or some one else.  If this same young child, gets their hands on a Breakdown AR pistol, they will have no idea how to assemble it without first being instructed by a professional.  Granted this training takes less than 30 minutes to become proficient, for someone who has never seen or been instructed on how to assemble this weapon, they will basically be holding an odd looking piece of metal.  The AR Breakdown Pistol is without a doubt, the most effective and safest weapon anyone could possess in an active shooter situation.

Now that we’ve discussed why the American Resistance Breakdown AR Pistols are crucial, lets touch on weapon specifications.  Keep in mind that these can be built in 1000’s of different configurations.  What we have come up with is not only the most cost effective, but allows even the most novice shooter to operate the weapon without having to spend hundreds of hours on the range getting proficient.  The base of the platform remains the same no matter if it’s a $1000 or $4000.  This is the system we have appropriately named “The Educator”.  It uses our AR Glock Magazine Last Round Bolt Hold Open lower receiver.  Yes, you read that correctly!  Our 9mm “Educator” uses the same magazine and ammunition as your Glock handgun.  For optics, we’ve opted to use the Sig Sauer Romeo 5 Red-Dot optic for 3 very valuable reasons.  First is usability.  Unlike iron sights or polymer flip sights, you don’t need a lot of range time to look through the optic, put the red dot on the target, and pull the trigger.  Iron sights require quite a bit of training to use effectively.  They are also fairly difficult to aim in quickly.  Iron sights require a couple seconds to line up your eye to the rear sight, then the front sight, then the intended target.  With the Romeo 5, there’s no “eye relief” or specific distance that your eye needs to be from the optic.  It’s a simple point and shoot system.  Simply put the red dot on your intended target, and pull the trigger.  Next, the Romeo 5 comes standard with more than enough battery power (40,000+ hours).   It uses a power saving mode.  This means you don’t have to manually turn your optic off when not using it.  The optic will turn itself off when not in use, and when you pick up the weapon to use it, the Romeo 5 will automatically turn itself on.  This eliminates fumbling with small buttons in a mentally and physically stressful situation.  Lastly, is the size of the optic.  It would make no sense to have compact weapon system and mount a massive sized optic on top of it.  The Romeo 5 is only 2.5″ long and 2.5″ tall, making it one of the smallest optics available.

Loading the weapon and getting it ready to be fired was our next mission.  How do we make this easy and painless for someone who doesn’t have 5 years of experience with shooting?  AR15’s have traditionally used charging handles that are known to be at best, awkward to use even for avid shooters.  The “Educator” comes standard with Devil Dog Concept’s “Hard Charger” side charging handle.  The DDC HC takes the awkward position of the charging handle and moves it to the side of the weapon with an over-sized handle to make loading the weapon an obvious and natural motion.  For females in particular who have longer fingernails, the DDC eliminates the painful motion of breaking fingernails using the old standard charging handle method.  It’s not that we’re trying to save a pretty nail job, but breaking off a fingernail during an active shooter event, only adds a unneeded variable to an already stressful situation.

For the trigger, we kept it standard with a Mil-Spec 6lb pull.  For those of us that have built plenty of AR’s, we know that we can get down to 2 or 3lbs.  Having a light weight trigger for a competition or long range precision weapon is one of the best upgrades for your AR.  However, having a light trigger pull in a stressful situation can prove to be more dangerous than anything.  With the 6lb pull weight, we’ve drastically lowered the possibility of accidental discharges.  To discharge a weapon with a 6lb or heavier trigger, it has to be intentional.

The American Resistance AR Breakdown Pistol is extremely ergonomic and fundamentally simplistic to operate, even for beginner lever shooters.  When your life and those you care about depend on how well you prepared, don’t get caught with a half thought out plan.  Make sure you have the only weapon on the market that takes evil by surprise at a moments notice.

Weapon Specifications:

  • 10.5″ Barrel by American Resistance
  • Forged mil-spec upper receiver and lower receiver
  • DDC Side Charger
  • Sig Sauer Romeo 5 Optic
  • 6lb trigger pull
  • SB Tactical Stabilizing brace
  • Cry Havoc Tactical QRB Barrel Takedown System
  • Law Tactical Folding Stock Adapter

Weight Loaded: 8.5lbs

Length when Broken Down:  9″

Length when assembled: 24″

Width when Broken Down: 4″

Height From bottom of grip to top of Romeo 5 optic: 9″