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Still though, they've distributed a shitload of M16A's

The M16 is a field-issue combat rifle, certainly, but it's also the mainstay of sport hunters and shooting enthusiasts everywhere. It's also the appropriate weapon to have providing overwatch when serving a warrant on a potentially hostile perp; It's accurate at, and visible at, far greater ranges than a service pistol. Sometimes you need a guy in the rear to make certain nobody fucks with you.

This is somewhat misleading. AR-15 patterned rifles are a mainstay of shooting enthusiasts.

You'll be hard pressed to find someone who hunts with a select fire, optionally fully automatic m16.

It's not really humane to hunt anything but foxes and rabbits with a civilian AR-15. 5.56×45mm is too small to guarantee a killshot against a deer, so most consider it pretty inhumane to try -- there's a high likelyhood it'll leave a deer to slowly bleed out.

Frankly, it's a pretty terrible sport hunting rifle. The round is too small for most big game, and the cartridge is too powerful for most small game.

The mainstay of sport hunters is actually the 12-gauge shotgun.

Hunting isn't really a good justification for the proliferation of AR-platform rifles, and is definitely a non-sequitur when discussing the armament of our police force.

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