I remember back in the early 1970s dealers could not give away an AR-15 (except to me!). All everyone wanted were hunting rifles. When I showed them my AR they would say...”But will it knock down a deer?”
Then Mel Tappan started his survivalist column in Guns and Ammo magazine and the world changed. Everyone wanted military style semi-auto rifles.
I bought my first AR-15 back in 1970, a M-1 carbine (Inland) back in 1971, and one of the first Ruger mini-14s in 1976.
Wish I had kept them but I also hate starving.
I recall reading, about 40 years ago, that the new generation of gun owners would eventually transition from bolt actions to semi-auto detachable magazine fed rifles, because the civilian population always eventually transitioned to what they became familiar with in the military.
The MSM might have delayed this for a decade or two, but it appears that we are finally there.