Member all those times you saw guys open carrying their M1 Garands at subway and shit? I member.
Your post partially explains why they were so popular. You could get a reliable firearm for $20. There was also a lot of reverence for them by the sons and grandsons of the greatest generation. What you didn’t see is people buying them, covering them in accessories and open carrying them around town with bandoliers of HC magazines. Brisket is 100% correct, gun culture is very different now.
A lot of guys buy ARs the same reason they buy F250s that they drive from their suburb home to their office in the city. Because fuck you/Murica, I’ll drive a 12MPG hard to park beast so I don’t look like a pussy when I’m with my fantasy football bros. Not painting all AR owners with that brush, but we all know at least one guy like that. They are the ones I fear because they aren’t good gun owners. Anyone that thinks “this situation is getting intense, I should pull a gun out to calm things down” is a fucking idiot that watches too many movies.
Full disclosure, I own an AR. I bought it for a pig gun on our hunting ranch. Thats the only time it has ever been pulled out of the bag. Between growing up with guns and serving in the army I also don’t have any big fascination with it over any other firearm.