The AR has become a political symbol because it happened to be used in mass shootings, but there's nothing about it that makes it unique in terms of it's ability to do harm. Even if you live in a state that's banned the AR-15, you can get a gun that's virtually identical that's not an AR. This speaks to the fact that Democrats talking about guns are like Republicans talking about tech. They're trying to control an industry and have made zero effort to understand anything about it.
This clause is untrue. The most common chamberings of .223 Remington or 5.56x45mm NATO are not "high-powered". That is an intermediate-power cartridge. More power than a plinking/training round like .22 or .17 HMR, or common handgun rounds, but still less power than a traditional full-size rifle round. Furthermore, the action and magazine well of an AR-15 are too short to even physically accommodate full-size rifle rounds like .308 Winchster / 7.62x51mm NATO, .270, .30-06, etc, to say nothing of rounds that would actually be justifiably called "high-power", like .300 Winchester Magnum or .338 Laupa.
The rest of your post is spot-on, but the meme that the AR-15 is "high-powered" is factually wrong and needs to die.
30-06 was introduced in 1906 (the -06 bit) to fix the 30-03 (making it a hair shorter and a lighter 150 grain spitzer "pointy" bullet instead of the 220 grain round nose). The result was faster, lighter, and a flatter trajectory at a weight of around 27 grams per cartridge (I don't know the weight of the 30-30, but I think around 30 grams is probably accurate).
The 7.62x51 went down a little to 147 grain, but shaved almost a half inch off the length reducing weight to around 24 grams at a somewhat minor expense of velocity, range, and impact strength (very few people could make use of the extra range and power in combat).
The first 5.56x45 was all about reducing size. 55 grain bullet was a fraction of the size while the overall length dropped by almost 3/4 of an inch resulting in around an 11.5 gram cartridge (the 62 grain version adds another half gram or so). The effective range dropped dramatically and kinetic energy was cut in half, but once again, very few people can shoot that far in combat and the kinetic energy was deemed sufficient (though that's debated by some soldiers today). Double the ammo for the same weight is a much more important metric for the army.
It's a good cartridge for a lot of things, but it's the weakest rifle cartridge the US army has ever used and probably the weakest intermediate cartridge used in any army in the world.
Unless you mean the real "ArmaLite AR-15", or a clone, which shoots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.223_Remington. Now that round will absolutely wreck things. But even then, it's not really a high-powered round...
- The AR-15 is semiautomatic, compared to hunting rifles which are often bolt-action, and thus less convenient/ergonomic to operate
- Plethora of aftermarket parts and accessories. Extreme customizability.
- Cheap ammo
- AR barrels are usually shorter than what would come with a hunting rifle, resulting in a gun that is less cumbersome and requires less space
I'll address the latter first. The wildlife that tends to be classified as varmints, prairie dogs, rabbits, possums, raccoons, coyotes, wild hogs etc, all tend to have less body mass than humans. Any intermediate cartridge is sufficient. Any common handgun cartridge would probably also be sufficient, though there are at least two problems with the that: 1. A handgun cartridge may not have enough power to quickly drop larger varmints like coyotes or hogs. 2. And even out of something like a pistol-caliber carbine (think an AR or similar compact rifle chambered for pistol rounds) handgun rounds tend to be limited in their practical effective range compared intermediate cartridges. This forces one to get closer to the varmint in question to take the shot. For smaller varmints, like prairie dogs or rabbits, this means that they bolt away and you won't be able to take the shot. For larger varmints, like raccoons, coyotes, or hogs, this means that the critter might decide it's sick of your shit and attack. You might not think it, given the relative size between raccoons and humans, but raccoons can punch well above their weight and absolutely can cause significant injuries to a human.
All of the critters above tend to top-out at body masses less than a human. Compare bears, which can equal the body mass of a human as juveniles, and tend to top out at body masses well in excess thereof. If you shot a bear with an intermediate cartridge and didn't have the luck to have your first shot be a lethal one, you have now wounded, and angered, the bear. You thought raccoons or hogs were dangerous when pissed off.
Now for motivation -- that the real reason to own an AR-pattern rifle is to have something very suitable for killing people. Um, I don't know how to break this to you, but just about any common handgun cartridge bigger than .32 ACP is very suitable for killing people, this is not something unique or special about an AR-15. But I won't pretend that it isn't quite capable of such -- it absolutely is. Were I to find myself in a home defense situation, I would reach for an AR over a handgun or shotgun -- more power than the former, and more precise than the latter. I'm not going to pretend that such is any more likely a scenario than a global plague disrupting food supply chains. But, I suppose keeping a few weeks of water, food and batteries on hand also makes me an irrational weirdo.
Finally, you may have heard the phrase, "all interesting behavior is overdetermined". With regards to the large market for AR-pattern rifles, this means that for any one AR owner, they will have one or more of a myriad of reasons to own an AR -- including as a raised middle finger to those who would wring their hands about the AR's unique suitability for murder and that its ownership should be banned or restricted. For good or for ill, open defiance of overbearing busybodies has been a part of the American psyche for a long time.
You cant hunt deer or bigger with them....because of the lack of power. Its considered inhumane.
They are great for varmit/small game (ie: coyote and pigs) though.
Are like the people who are saying the Casio F91W is a "terrorist watch" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23971045
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/a-georgia-man-shot-and-...
You're saying "why wouldn't some other firearm suffice", while we just buy ARs unless that default is somehow unsuitable.