Here's a simple answer for "why does anyone need an assault rifle, anyway?"
Coyotes.
Coyotes are pack animals that run in groups of between four and twelve. They are violent, as all predators necessarily are, and are frequently found on farmland. They are communal eaters, many of them tearing chunks off of prey simultaneously.
Rabies is spread via saliva. If one coyote is rabid, odds are good the others are infected, too, just not as symptomatic.
If you're a rancher or farmer and you're out on your property after dark, hearing the howls of coyote is one of the loveliest things you'll ever hear. They are intelligent, complex, beautiful animals. But when you hear the rout of coyote coming your way, you want a rifle which will reliably put down a rabid coyote with a single shot, and which you will not have to reload until the coyotes are in full retreat.
That's an AR-15 with a thirty-round magazine. In the eyes of the media, it is an "assault rifle". Ranchers and farmers call it by a different name: it is a "ranch rifle." It's light, it's effective, and it can be used to save your life or the lives of your livestock.
(It is true that very few people die from coyote attacks. Only a dozen or so have been reported in the last decade. This statistic is very little consolation to you when you're a few miles from home, it's night, and you hear the coyotes howling.)
So-called "assault weapons" are legitimate agricultural tools. All claims to the contrary are urban provincialism and anti-rural bias.
no subject
Coyotes.
Coyotes are pack animals that run in groups of between four and twelve. They are violent, as all predators necessarily are, and are frequently found on farmland. They are communal eaters, many of them tearing chunks off of prey simultaneously.
Rabies is spread via saliva. If one coyote is rabid, odds are good the others are infected, too, just not as symptomatic.
If you're a rancher or farmer and you're out on your property after dark, hearing the howls of coyote is one of the loveliest things you'll ever hear. They are intelligent, complex, beautiful animals. But when you hear the rout of coyote coming your way, you want a rifle which will reliably put down a rabid coyote with a single shot, and which you will not have to reload until the coyotes are in full retreat.
That's an AR-15 with a thirty-round magazine. In the eyes of the media, it is an "assault rifle". Ranchers and farmers call it by a different name: it is a "ranch rifle." It's light, it's effective, and it can be used to save your life or the lives of your livestock.
(It is true that very few people die from coyote attacks. Only a dozen or so have been reported in the last decade. This statistic is very little consolation to you when you're a few miles from home, it's night, and you hear the coyotes howling.)
So-called "assault weapons" are legitimate agricultural tools. All claims to the contrary are urban provincialism and anti-rural bias.