Around six years ago, my dad was nearing 78 and a rural farmer. He was shown a AR-15 by a neighbor, and ended up going out to buy one. I was rather surprised about this, but he added the benefits.
The gun was light and the grip was perfect for a older guy with light arthritis. The ammo magazine could be prefilled and ready to go. For coyotes and wild dogs messing with the cattle...you could retrieve the gun easily from the truck and be ready to fire in two seconds. For the local rural population around where I grew up...I’d say that sixty percent of the farms now have a AR-15 and by 2020...it’ll be 100-percent.
The overall problem I see is some idiots trying assemble a phrase or language which says automatic rifles, or assault rifles...are anything other than a rifle with three simple capabilities. The minute we crossed the line and had an automatic capability...you could have predicted a hundred years ago where this is going.
We can even predict that within thirty years....a non-ammo weapon will be available for the public, which will ‘zap’ a guy from a hundred feet away. What will the non-gun crowd say then? A metalic rod device....battery within it....some type of laser-device...operating on a rapid-fire principal?
For home defense, it’s a lot easier to work the corners with a compact weapon than a long rifle or shotgun. And the smaller .223 bullet is less likely to go thru walls and into a neighbor’s house.