The point with assault rifles simply comes down to where one wishes to drawl a bright line as to why civilians should not be allowed accesses to certain military style weapons. I mean we don’t allow civilians to fly fully armed fighters and bombers or drive around in real weaponized tanks or play with countless other forms of military weapons.

So basically I say if a weapon was designed for the modern battlefield or a close copy of such, then it has no good purpose in civilian life today.

Can one hunt and target shoot fine without an AR-15? On the other hand can one exterminate humans more efficiently with AR-15 than lesser lethal types of guns?

Even freedom and liberty come down to some obvious practical considerations. Heck, I might be temped to want to own an AR-15, but I’m still not going to get all bent out of shape if they say I can’t own one. In fact if you really feel a need for such weapons join the army and have at it.