[Mariner]

The author totally missed the most important reasons.

A complete miss.

Your friends, family and neighbors have AR-15s and you can pool ammo and magazines. You can even scavenge them from government stores.

In the US it’s the universal rifle.

I prefer the mini-14 in every category...except the one above. And it’s the most important of all.

[Myrddin]

I like the mini-14 as well. My primary complaint is the barrel is too light and tends to string shots vertically as it heats up. The tactical version in 300BLK is outstanding.