Over a 22-year period, via the AF, I probably had 15 training episodes with the M-16, and one training episode with the M-9. They all went the same way...show up at 7AM at some range...sit through three hours of safety training and orientation. Then an hour of hands-on and taking it apart. You go to lunch, and then you return to fire approximately 60 rounds.
One year, the unit had an overage of training slots and came around to ask if anyone wanted extra days....I signed up for four days in a one-month period (my boss didn’t care if I missed that many).
My dad, around age 80...farmer his entire life, was shown the AR15. Neighbor had bought one. My dad had arthritis and it was a pain to lift the 30-year old rifle that he’d had since the 1980s. With the grip and lighter weight, he was very surprised....a month later, he went out and bought one.
I doubt if he shot it more than twice over the next year or two, before he passed on with cancer.
It’s simply built to be dirt-simple...easy to clean...easy to replace parts...and could a fairly rugged beating. If they did invent some ban...you would just take the same principals to the AR15, and reproduce older model guns with the same pistol grip and lighter frame.
***My dad had arthritis ***
Same here. Pistol grips are great for arthritic hands, and being on blood thinners means I can not shoot my heavy rifles any more. They now bruise me bad, and the bruises stay and travel from my shoulder down my arm.