Reply #38: An AR-15 is just fine for hunting small creatures...

[Irreverend IX]

Its light weight, high accuracy, superior ergonomics and weather resistance make it better for hunting prairie dogs and similar creatures that most traditional-style rifles. It shouldn't be used to hunt larger game like deer because it's not powerful enough. But you can use an AR-10 for those purposes.

And it is not the "same thing, different decade" as a Thompson or BAR. The original Thompson and BAR are fully automatic, and civilian-legal AR-15s are semiautomatic. You do understand the difference, right? Full-auto civilian weapons are extremely rare, expensive and tightly regulated. And there are plenty of semiautomatic Thompsons and BARs in civilian hands.

And why do these rifles concern you when they're used in a vanishingly small fraction of gun crimes? Rifles of all kinds, from semiautos to bolt-actions, are used in less than 3% of yearly US homicides. More people are killed with fists and feet each year. By far the most popular crime guns are small, cheap handguns that can easily be tossed in the river and replaced after use.