Argent, I think you’re doing a commendable job trying to fight ignorance here, but in this case it’s a losing battle. Like religion and politics, you can’t change people’s minds about firearms on a messageboard.
People that hate guns or are scared of them don’t care that an AR-15 and M-16A2 are actually different guns despite looking exactly the same (The M-16A2 has burst-fire, the AR-15 is semi-auto only), and that only the M-16 is actually an “Assault rifle”.
They don’t care that automatic weapons are so rarely used in crimes in the US that their incidence is almost at the “statistical rounding error” level.
And they don’t want to think of shooting as a sport enjoyed by completely normal people- people who obey the law, pay their taxes, have families, friends, healthy social lives, and are generally well-adjusted, productive, and sane.
That’s why I think most of the shooters are staying out of this one. The other side of the argument don’t actually want to hear a contrary point of view, and there’s only so many times you can roll your eyes at the anti-gun crowd comparing firearms to penis substitutes before you start to compose a well-thought out reply, then think “Fuck it, no-one’s actually going to read it or acknowledge it anyway.”