[detective]

Interesting article.

[JimRed]

Number one reason: Because THEY don’t want you to.

[Carriage Hill]

Reason #?? should be that 5.56mm/.223cal ammo is extremely common, unlike many other calibers, and in a SHTF situation, can come in handy.

[HiTech RedNeck]

cause it’s redneck cool...

[RandallFlagg]

Kewl! I can just drive on down to Dick’s Sporting Goods and buy....

Oh...
Wait......

Nevermind.

(I actually built my AR)

[Redleg Duke]

Actually, the M-16 was derived from the AR-15.

[OrangeHoof]

Reporter Deterrent.

[Robert357]

They missed what I consider the most important reason for owning an AR-15. If you know how to field strip, clean, lube, operate an AR-15 then should you somehow in defending yourself get your hands on a fully automatic M-14 or M-4 you will know how to operate it skillfully.

That is a reason that would throw fear in the hearts of any Jack-booted thugs in the employ of a dictatorship. Knowing that in confrontations, some fully automatic weapons would be picked up by those in revolt and knowing that a goodly portion of them may have been combat trained would also cause the police and military to pause.

[smokingfrog]

#11 Feral hogs.
#12 Bacon

[Billthedrill]

I'll add a reason:

11. Because the people who don't want me to have one, don't want me to live.

[Myrddin]

The AR-15 predates the M-16 version with select fire. It’s a great general purpose design with lots of commodity support.

[Glenmore]

#1, per my wife, “because THEY don’t want you to.”

[PapaBear3625]

Seems like a good place to insert this classic

Things You Know If You Own A ...

AK-47	AR15 / M16 / M4	Mosin-Nagant
It works even though you seldom clean it.	It works as long as you buy the $9/ounce special non-detergent synthetic teflon infused oil.	It was last cleaned before entering Berlin in 1945.
You can hit the broad side of a barn from inside.	You can hit the broad side of a barn from 600 meters.	You can hit the farm from the adjacent county.
Cheap magazines are readily available.	Cheap magazines melt.	What is magazine?
Your safety is a broad lever audible 300 meters away.	You can silently flip off the safety with your finger on the trigger.	What is safety?

AK-47	AR15 / M16 / M4	Mosin-Nagant
Your rifle came with a cheap nylon sling.	Your rifle now has a 9-point stealth tactical suspension system.	Your rifle came with two dog collars and a leash.
Your rifle's finish is varnish and paint.	Your rifle's finish is teflon and polymers.	Your rifle's finish is low-grade shellac, cosmoline, and Soviet toenail polish.
Your bayonet makes a pretty good wire cutter.	Your bayonet makes a pretty good steak knife.	Your bayonet is as long as your leg.
You can mount your bayonet and intimidate your foe.	You can mount your bayonet and make your foe laugh.	You can bayonet your foe on the other side of the river without leaving your hole.
Recoil is manageable.	What is recoil?	Recoil is often used to relocate a shoulder dislocated by the previous round.
Your sight adjustment goes to an uncalibrated "10", but you have never bothered changing it.	Your sight adjustment is calibrated in fractions of minute of angle.	Your sight adjustment goes to 1200 arshins, and you've actually tried it.

AK-47	AR15 / M16 / M4	Mosin-Nagant
Your rifle is used by two-bit nations' illiterate conscripts to fight elite forces worldwide.	Your rifle is used by elite forces to fight two-bit nations' illiterate conscripts worldwide.	Your rifle has fought against itself and it won every time.
You paid $350.	You paid $900.	You paid $59.95.
If your rifle breaks, you can repair it with a hammer.	If your rifle breaks, you can take your rifle to a certified AR15/M16/M4 gunsmith, if it is still under warranty.	If your rifle breaks, it is cheapest and easiest to just buy a new one.
You buy cheap Yugoslav ammunition by the case.	You carefully reload precision crafted rounds one at a time.	You dig your ammunition out of a Ukrainian farm field and it works just fine.
You can change between 7.62 mm and 5.54 mm, most easily by buying a second rifle.	You can change cartridge sizes by pushing a couple of pins and installing a new upper receiver.	You know that no real man would suggest that there is anything other than 7.62x54R.
Favorite movie: Red Dawn	Favorite movie: Black Hawk Down	Favorite movie: Enemy at the Gates

AK-47	AR15 / M16 / M4	Mosin-Nagant
You could accessorize your rifle with a new muzzle brake or a modified stock. However, Ivan Chesnokov will tell you that you should not.	Your rifle's accessories are more expensive than your already expensive rifle.	Your rifle's accessory is a small tin can with a funny lid. But it's buried under an apartment building somewhere in Budapest.
You would really like to have an autographed photo of Mikhail Kalashnikov.	You would really like to have an autographed photo of Eugene Stoner.	You're uncertain if there were cameras when Sergei Mosin was alive.
Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to hold your rifle over your head and shout "Wolverines!"	Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to clear your house, slicing the pie a room at a time.	Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to dig a fighting trench in the yard to sleep in.
Service life: 71 years.	Service life: 55 years.	Service life: 127 years, so far.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Lol, another FR firearms thread, alternately hilarious and horrifying! :)

[YogicCowboy]

Never liked it. Still don’t.

To each his own. I would rather have an M-14.

[golux]

Well, thanks to it's propensity to jam, (a rifle pre-equipped with an anti-jam plunger, as reliable as a woman pre-equipped with antibiotics,) difficulty to take down, inaccuracy... No wonder it was our best friend in the Vietnam war!

Ahh, yes. The AR-15 variants: The perfect rifle for people who like to sit... And clean... And buy accessories... And carefully assemble... And look at the computer... And buy more Hoppe's... And post things on the internet...

Not these guys:



And not me.

Congratulations anyway, Armalite.

[editor-surveyor]

.
I like my Rugers, and they don’t look like something a d!ckless MR would cherish.

[Kickass Conservative]

Because I’m a Natural Born American Citizen with God Given Inalienable Rights.

No need to list any other reason.

[Howie66]

I LOVE my AR-15s! They never do anything that I don’t want them to do.