The left's demands regarding the AR-15 boil down to "big scary gun".
Actually, I think you might be mistaken.
From what I have seen, the AR-15 and M-16 I believe have a great deal in common, structurally and functionally.
The difference is how the “lower” is machined or drilled out. (the “lower” is what the Feds regard as “the gun”) and as such, it is the one that is stamped with identifiers.
Usually.
From what I understand, it is technically quite easy to change an AR-15 semiautomatic to a full automatic if you are willing to break the law and have the resources to make or buy the small part(s) needed to accomplish the conversion.
I am sure there are those who know more about this kind of thing than I do.
I have often wondered if their whole obsession with the AR-15 has as much to do with that fact (that they could be converted) as the emotionally scary (to them) black color of the firearm.
A Springfield 1903 is a much deadlier weapon than any AR, but no one mentions that one.
The left picked the AR weapons because of their appearance.
Scary black rifle.
A knife is a weapon of war. Hence the bayonet.
***The left’s demands regarding the AR-15 boil down to “big scary gun”. ***
I remember not long ago a gun-ban organization showed a photo of the semi-auto they wanted to ban. Someone pointed out it was actually a bolt action rifle with a fancy plastic-metal stock. Now lever action rifles have a similar scary stock.
I remember back in the late 1970s when some detective show on TV when an assassin was handed an old AR-15 with a BIG SCOPE on it. It was enough to frighten anyone who did not know what it was. I had a feeling the anti-gun radicals would go after them next. They did in the 1980s.
Not to quibble but this is just not true. I've assembled and disassembled both top to bottom. My personal ARs were all built by me. The only difference in design is a drillhole and a sear.
IMO - the "oh it looks scary but it's not" argument is a fail legally and on principal. We're allowed, by law, to have both, and both are deadly... as intended.
Most shooters are actually *more deadly without select-fire. Almost zero mil or leo use full-auto 5.56, for good reason.
For the majority of liberals that may be true. But the Democrats in power don’t want you to have an effective defense against a tyrannical government.
Why should they do such a foolish thing? An honest SCOTUS would recognize that the NFA34 and the GCA68 are violations of the Constitutions, overturn them, and publicly recognize that "weapons of war" are those weapons MOST protected by the Constitution.
Quit letting the communists define the verbal battlefield.