These idiots are glamorizing AR-15s. Because of the name and the appearance the left has made it their gun control boogie man and they’ve propagandize day it so these killers get them. Most would barely know it from other guns if not for the media manipulation.
Very true - back in the Reagan years, my favorite gun shop had a small number of AR-15s (all Colt at the time), as well as other "black guns" of the period, such as the HK-91. One small corner of the display rack. The vast majority of the inventory was "sporting" style or retro-military style carbines and rifles. Ruger Mini-14s were more popular than ARs and AKs were scarcely seen at that time.
A friend of mine back then had an FFL, so he was more connected to the trends - including the Chinese bringing AKS and SKS rifles into our market - and at very low prices. Soon, Bush 41 was in office and the trouble started - the media soon began beating the "assault weapons" drum and the Bush-Clinton era brought government declarations about what sort of firearms Americans should be allowed to have.
A quarter-century later, we have more semi-automatic rifles (especially "military pattern") than any other type on the shelf. The situation in many gun shops now is the reverse of what I saw during the Reagan years. Unintended consequences... and the political left *still* fails to perceive how their emotional but ill-informed blather only works in our favor.