The USA has literally more than one mass shooting1 per day. It has reached the point where these don’t even reach the news any longer unless there’s some special angle to make them “interesting”. The reaction to this, from an outsider perspective, should be “maybe we should do something about the proliferation of freely available guns”. The reaction to this, again from an outsider perspective, seems to be rather “OMG I BETTER BUY MORE GUNS!!!111oneoneoneeleventy!”
What gives? How come the USA has not yet figured out that doubling down on the strategy that led to the nation having a shocking murder rate for the developed world is not a working solution?
What is it about the USA and guns that makes you tolerate this state when you’ve got a culturally-similar nation to the north of you that, despite your cultural problems being imported, still doesn’t have your kill rate?
1 Defined as a shooting event in which at least 4 people other than the shooter are injured or killed.
An AR-15 is a superb hunting weapon, so I am not quite sure where you get your information. 22 caliber is quite good for small deer (when used in the proper circumstances) and 6.5mm and up is great for hogs or the like. It’s perfect for the field and you can easily modify it any way you need to match the environment as you did describe perfectly yourself. I can actually carry an AR pistol as well as my primary rifle while hiking through very rough terrain.
While I appreciate, and even respect, the ELI5 on AR-15s there is much more to know about different calibers and their specific functions.
While ARs can tolerate many of the shitty modifications people do to them, they can be extremely finicky at the same time. A poorly planned hair trigger or full auto mod can cause massive, destructive, malfunctions. Most of the redneck videos you see on YouTube are mostly bullshit. I have broken enough AR parts to know this firsthand.
I should also note that the enjoyment of firearms is not just stick go boom, it’s the engineering precision of it all that I love. The seductive power of it all is great for a bit. However, when that is over, the engineering aspects dominate for me.