I had a son-in-law with one AR-15. When talk started about banning them again he hurried up and bought a second one, even posed my little granddaughter with it on Facebook. I don't understand why anyone needs one and I sure don't understand why anyone needs two.....well, except for the ability to brag and appear to be a bad dude times two! S-i-l loved to pull them out to impress other men.
Semiautomatic rifles have been in existence for public purchase in our country since the 1950s like the AR 15, and similar rifes.
Some say they are military grade weapons, but that simply isn't true. The way they LOOK are modeled after military rifles with some even being much fancier looking depending on the manufacturer.
But the same working mechanisms are still the standard semiautomatic that has been in existence for over 60 or 70 years.
Btw, many females also own 15s, and .223s and various other rifles.
Many millions of legal gunowners own these type of rifles. Iirc, although they are being bought even more now than any other time in our history, in 2018 18 million are legally owned.
It helps to put it into clear perspective that these type of rifles are very rarely used to harm others.
In fact more homicides by far were done by offenders with handguns. Even shotguns are used approximately 250 times a year to commit homicides.
We, as a nation seem to learn very little if anything at all from our past history. We just blindly seem bound, and determined to repeat them.
During prohibition we banned liquor/alcohol until the government wised up realizing all it did was make many into millionaires who were illegally supplying the need, and demand without any taxes or any government regulations.
Then our goverment decided to make certain drugs illegal, which I agree with, but honestly all it did was windup making the drug lord into the next billionaires because tragically the supply, and demand is here in our country the most.
Then from 1994 until 2004 the government banned assault weapons. The reason it was lifted is because it had failed miserably in decreasing homicides.
In fact it was in the 90s our homicide, and overall crime rate soared higher than at any other time in our history.
Now in the past 6 years our homicide rate has steadily declined even though more firearms are legally owned including rifles than at any other time with our population growing immensely since the 1990s when homicides, and other crimes spiked under president Clinton's terms.
Imo, this shows banning anything outright only makes it far worse for our citizens ....as we have painfully seen over, and over again in past history.
All it will do... is like it always has done, and that is to drive up the supply, and demand making the illegal gunrunner the new wave of billionaires.
As an aside:
I often see many question why anyone would need or want these type of rifles. To me that is like me unfairly judging anyone who may purchase a 100K vehicle thatcan go 200 MPH why they dare to buy certain things. Honestly, it's not my business why anyone buys anything that is perfectly legal to purchase. They certainly don't owe any explanations to explain why.
No one who legally owns firearms owes anyone an explanation why they have them. They are legally obtained, and a protected right under our own constitution.
Of course if there are red flags any one shouldn't have any firearm those should be seized immediately if supported by evidence.
They aren't any different than anything else anyone else may want to legally purchase even if some of those other purchases may seem odd to someone else.
To make our homicide rate plummet faster than a falling heavy rock they must find away to get all of the illegal obtained firearms off our streets with many of them in the possession of violent exfelons or deadly gang members.
Just think if we could remove even four cities , like Chicago, Detroit, LA or St. Louis etc, from our overall homicide national data? Our yearly homicide rate nationwide would take a nosedive.
Imo, in the end it shows once again any one contemplating any murder including in mass always finds a way to carry them out. They always have, and that same pattern will continue just like it has in the past.
Jmho