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What you are telling me is that your emotions about guns trump my emotions about the live of human beings.

Say I want 5 tons of sarin gaz for my own personal protection. Where can I buy them? You aren't going to tell me I don't need them, are you?
I also need an A bomb, just to be on the safe side. Of course that's allowed in America, because Versace dresses and stomach surgery are ok so why not nuclear weapons, right?

And these poor souls think that they reason rationally...

Prohibitions against nerve gas and nuclear weapons can by justified with a good reason, therefore such prohibitions are allowed.

The NRA said "the AR-15 has soared in popularity" because it's "customizable, adaptable, reliable and accurate." It is also versatile and can be used for "sport shooting, hunting and self-defense situations," the NRA said, adding the ability to "personalize" so many of the rifle's components "is one of the things that makes it so unique."

On top of that, the weapon is accurate, relatively lightweight and has low recoil.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence also cited the rifle’s versatility in evaluating its popularity.

“They’re accurate and they can basically shoot as quickly as you can pull the trigger,” according to a campaign statement.

"Along those lines, they’re very customizable — most average people can figure out how to install accessories like forward trigger grips that let you hold the gun at waist height and spray bullets while stabilizing the gun, laser sights, and you can add high-capacity magazines.”

The ability to add a high-capacity magazine to the rifles is certainly one factor that makes them attractive to people looking to commit mass murder. A 30-round magazine is fairly standard with MSRs (although some states cap the capacity to 10 or 15 rounds), but "drums" holding as many as 100 rounds are also available.

But the AR-15 and its variants aren't the only high-capacity semi-automatic rifles on the market.

Dean Hazen, owner of The Gun Experts in Mahomet, Ill., and a master firearms instructor, said the reason mass shooters are turning to the AR-15 is due to a "copy-cat" mentality more than any feature of the rifle.

"It’s really just a perception thing," Hazen said. "There are rifles that are more powerful and more dangerous than that, but they're not being used."

Hazen said the AR-15 has "gotten a bad rap." He believes mass shooters generally don't know much about guns and choose the AR-15 because of the reputation it has gotten from being used in other mass shootings.

"Thank God they don't know any better because if they did they would use much more effective weapons," Hazen said.

Here is a list of mass shootings in the U.S. that featured AR-15-style rifles during the last 35 years, courtesy of the Stanford Geospatial Center and Stanford Libraries and USA TODAY research:

Feb. 24, 1984: Tyrone Mitchell, 28, used an AR-15, a Stoeger 12-gauge shotgun and a Winchester 12-gauge shotgun to kill two and wound 12 at 49th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles before killing himself.

Oct. 7, 2007: Tyler Peterson, 20, used an AR-15 to kill six and injure one at an apartment in Crandon, Wis., before killing himself.

June 20, 2012: James Eagan Holmes, 24, used an AR-15-style .223-caliber Smith and Wesson rifle with a 100-round magazine, a 12-gauge Remington shotgun and two .40-caliber Glock semi-automatic pistols to kill 12 and injure 58 at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.

Dec. 14, 2012: Adam Lanza, 20, used an AR-15-style rifle, a .223-caliber Bushmaster, to kill 27 people — his mother, 20 students and six teachers — in Newtown, Conn., before killing himself.

June 7, 2013: John Zawahri, 23, used an AR-15-style .223-caliber rifle and a .44-caliber Remington revolver to kill five and injure three at a home in Santa Monica, Calif., before he was killed.

March 19, 2015: Justin Fowler, 24, used an AR-15 to kill one and injure two on a street in Little Water, N.M., before he was killed.

May 31, 2015: Jeffrey Scott Pitts, 36, used an AR-15 and .45-caliber handgun to kill two and injure two at a store in Conyers, Ga., before he was killed.

Oct. 31, 2015: Noah Jacob Harpham, 33, used an AR-15, a .357-caliber revolver and a 9mm semi-automatic pistol to kill three on a street in Colorado Springs, Colo., before he was killed.

Dec. 2, 2015: Syed Rizwyan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, 28 and 27, used two AR-15-style, .223-caliber Remington rifles and two 9 mm handguns to kill 14 and injure 21 at his workplace in San Bernardino, Calif., before they were killed.

June 12, 2016: Omar Mateen, 29, used an AR-15 style rifle (a Sig Sauer MCX), and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol to kill 49 people and injure 50 at an Orlando nightclub before he was killed.

Oct. 1, 2017: Stephen Paddock, 64, used a stockpile of guns including an AR-15 to kill 58 people and injure hundreds at a music festival in Las Vegas before he killed himself.

Nov. 5, 2017: Devin Kelley, 26, used an AR-15 style Ruger rifle to kill 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, before he was killed.

Feb. 14, 2018: Police say Nikolas Cruz, 19, used an AR-15-style rifle to kill at least 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

More: 20 years in, shootings have changed schools in unexpected ways

More: Florida school shooting is the 6th to injure students this year

I want a handgun for home self defense. Are you okay with that?

I don't know too much about guns in spite of my husband owning several. So perhaps you could answer a question. Do either a semiautomatic handgun or sawed off shotgun do as much damage in the same amount of time as a AR-15

or another similar assault (whatever) gun?

Is it just a matter of a cosmetic (right word?) feature which turns one of those into a deadly weapon such a mass shooter's weapons of choice which has been an AR-15?

If so to the last, then while we are banning assault weapons, ban those too.

I know you dismiss this out of hand but there are sane [[more like "paranoid"]] people who feel that a citizenry armed with more than hunting rifles or revolvers creates a bulwark against tyranny.

As for your logic: Opioids are in the news today because people are
killing themselves through their abuse.

Handgun rounds are much less deadly

I'm more concerned about the nature of the threats to your safety.

I imagine those who feel the need to have a handgun for home defense are the same type of people who have bunkers in the backyard, bars on their windows, and 5 locks on their steel core doors. You know, safety is paramount.