AR-15

AR-15
First Appearance	"A Certain Doom"
Last Appearance	"Rest in Peace"
Users	Commonwealth Army Juanita Sanchez Eugene Porter Yumiko Okumura Daryl Dixon Rosita Espinosa Carol Peletier Toby Carlson Lydia Elijah Maggie Rhee Annie Smith Negan Smith Leah Shaw Aaron Gabriel Stokes Lance Hornsby Pamela Milton Ezekiel Sutton

“

You really want these guys rolling up to Hilltop or Alexandria with their machine gun swords? ―Ezekiel to Eugene.

”

The AR-15 is a type of semi-automatic rifle favored by the military and civilians. It is the preferred weapon of the Commonwealth Army.

Post-Apocalypse

After the zombie outbreak, AR-15s customized with a bayonet become the favored weapon of the Commonwealth Army. The weapons prove to be highly effective against both human enemies and herds of zombies. According to Sebastian Milton, the Commonwealth keeps track of all of the bullets used and they have to all be accounted for afterward.

While trying to escape from the Commonwealth Processing Center, Eugene Porter and Yumiko Okumura use stolen AR-15s as part of their guise as Commonwealth soldiers.

After joining the Commonwealth Army, both Daryl Dixon and Rosita Espinoza are issued AR-15s which subsequently become their weapons of choice.

For an unknown reason, Lance Hornsby secretly moves a large shipment of weapons under the guise of supplies for the Coalition which is ambushed and all of the weapons taken by Leah Shaw. Leah gets her hands on at least three AR-15s, using them to bait a trap and wound two Commonwealth soldiers when Lance eventually catches up to her two weeks later.

Leah's theft of his weapons' shipment causes Lance to send Toby Carlson and a detachment of soldiers to Riverbend under the guise of a peaceful first contact mission due to his belief that Riverbend has stolen the weapons. On Toby's orders, one of his soldiers shoots a fleeing Jesse in the back, mortally wounding him. Toby subsequently borrows one of the rifles to use its bayonet in order to prevent a dead Commonwealth solider killed by Annie from reanimating, before returning the weapon due to his preference for Ian's Desert Eagle Mark I. After killing Hodges and another soldier, Lydia and Elijah take their AR-15's. However, the Riverbend residents don't actually have the stolen rifles, preventing their use in the defense of their home which they are hunted and slaughtered through by the Commonwealth soldiers. Maggie and Annie subsequently take the rifles stolen from Hodges and the soldier that Annie had killed as they go searching through the building for survivors while the others gain another rifle after Negan kills Jake Daniels while rescuing Hershel. As part of Maggie's plan, Gabriel and Aaron lure Toby, Green and another soldier to the roof, allowing Maggie and Annie to ambush and kill Sgt. Crowe and the other surviving soldier. After Elijah kills his companions with his kamas, Toby tries to surrender when Maggie and Annie join them on the roof, but he is shot by Aaron instead. During the subsequent journey to the Hilltop, when the Commonwealth Army encounters a herd, Lance sends Gabriel and Aaron to deal with it instead as a way of testing out their capabilities, claiming that he and his men need to save their bullets. Joining his friends, Daryl uses his gun's bayonet to take out most of the walkers that he fights, although he uses a single bullet to put down two walkers at once, sarcastically telling Lance that he saved him a bullet.

At the same time as the invasion of Riverbend, Sebastian Milton sends Daryl and Rosita to retrieve money for him from Cooper's House as Alves and Castle can't go without using their guns and arousing suspicion. Carol and Michael Mercer later show up to help, using AR-15's to shoot their way through the massive herd outside. However, they both use up most of their ammunition in the process and don't have enough to shoot their way back out. As a result, Daryl has everyone cover themselves in walker guts in order to sneak out instead. However, after April panics, the walkers in the house turn on them, forcing everyone to eliminate them. Carol and Mercer both use up their remaining bullets before switching to melee weapons for the rest of the fight.

During the attempt to assassinate Daryl, Aaron and Gabriel, Romano and three Commonwealth soldiers attempt to shoot them with their rifles, but the three prove to be more nimble, dodging through a mini-junkyard of vehicles. Daryl steals Romano's rifle and gives it to Aaron while Gabriel ambushes another soldier, knocks him out and steals his gun. Together, Daryl, Aaron and Gabriel eliminate the Commonwealth soldiers despite Aaron suffering a shoulder wound and a herd that is drawn by the gunfight. After getting information from Romano, Daryl executes him with a headshot.

Despite putting on camouflage, a team of Commonwealth soldiers aiding Leah in her effort to assassinate Maggie still carry their AR-15s. After three of them are killed in an explosion, Maggie intends to retrieve their weapons before Leah shoots Marco in the head, forcing Maggie, Elijah, and Lydia to flee instead. One of the dead soldiers reanimates and is put down with a headshot by another soldier. The next day, Daryl uses his AR-15 to kill Leah in order to save a captured Maggie. Seeing Lance outside of Leah's Cabin, Daryl shoots at him with his rifle, but he only succeeds in grazing Lance's face with the shot before he and Maggie have to flee.

After Leah's death, Daryl appears to lose his AR-15. However, he gets a new one after Negan kills a Commonwealth soldier and slides Daryl his gun. When Lance shows up, Daryl shoots him in the arm and kills three more soldiers in a firefight before departing to help Negan against two pursuing soldiers. Later, in order to draw Lance and his forces into the sewers, Gabriel fires his stolen gun into the air. When the soldiers arrive, Aaron uses the bayonet on his AR-15 to slash the leg of one of the soldiers, hobbling him, before Daryl, Maggie, Aaron, Annie, and Gabriel get into a standoff with the Commonwealth soldiers, Daryl holding a knife to Lance's neck. The standoff ends with Carol and Negan arriving with Pamela and Mercer who order the soldiers to stand down and arrest Lance for both his own crimes and Sebastian's.

After the Coalition and the Commonwealth go their separate ways thanks to Carol's deal with Pamela, Daryl and Rosita turn in their AR-15s and return to using their old weapons again.

After Pamela has the Coalition members living in the Commonwealth kidnapped and made to disappear, Daryl and Carol ambush and subdue two Commonwealth soldiers in the jail and take their guns and keys. When their breakout of Lance sets off an alarm, Daryl engages in a gunfight with three Commonwealth soldiers, eventually managing to escape. Using her new gun, Carol puts down a number of walkers in a tunnel before being forced to flee when more show up. Outside, Alpha Squad prepares to kill the two when Daryl, having hitched a ride on their jeep, shoots them from behind with Carol stabbing one in the head that is only wounded.

When Daryl and Carol attempt to exile Lance, no longer needing his help and tired of his manipulations, he grabs an AR-15 from the back of their stolen jeep and turns it on Daryl and Carol. However, Carol shoots Lance in the neck with an arrow before he can open fire, killing him. Lance drops the gun as he falls and neither Daryl nor Carol bother to retrieve it.

After the Coalition retakes Alexandria, the group that goes after Pamela Milton in Union Station arms themselves with a number of AR-15s taken from the captured Commonwealth soldiers while Pamela's men use a mixture of the weapons and other assault rifles. During the gunfight, Pamela grabs one from a dead soldier and attempts to kill Maggie. Seeing this, Judith shoves Maggie out of the way and is shot instead, shocking Pamela to the point that she stops firing. However, Judith ultimately survives the wound after receiving medical treatment from Tomi.

As the Commonwealth becomes overrun by a massive herd, the Coalition battles the walkers in the streets with Eugene, Gabriel, and Negan using the AR-15s that they took to battle the walkers as their friends use pistols and blades instead. Later, Eugene and Gabriel use the bayonet attachments to put down the walkers devouring several corpses at the Commonwealth Children's Home. When the plan is enacted to destroy the herd, those who lure the herd away switch to melee weapons, including the Commonwealth soldiers, due to the close quarters of the plan and their intention not to engage beyond necessary. Instead, they bolster their melee weapons with riot shields to help push the walkers back.

Killed Victims

The following is a list of victims killed with an AR-15:

• Jesse (Alive)
• Sgt. Crowe
• Romano
• Marco
• Leah Shaw
• Trooper 263
• Sanborn (Alive)
• Numerous counts of enemy combatants (Pre-Apocalypse)
• 13 unnamed Commonwealth soldiers (1 Before Reanimation, 1 Zombified, 1 Accidental)
• Many unnamed Riverbend residents
• 2 unnamed Commonwealth residents (Alive and Zombified)
• 1 unnamed Alexandria resident (Alive and Zombified)
• Numerous counts of zombies and unnamed people