Yes, the AR-15 is "one of the most effective" guns. So is the Mini-14 Ranch Rifle. These are cosmetically very different guns, and banning one without banning the other really is dumb. These are not contradictory statements.p0lyhuman wrote:"PRO-GUN advocates often say that an AR15 is one of the most effective tools for self defense. That is, people who supposedly know what they are talking about. But in their next breath they will say that assault weapons bans are dumb because an AR15 is only cosmetically different from any other rifle. The two arguments are contradictory. If the AR15 is only cosmetically different, then why is it more effective for self defense?"
This is where the argument falls apart, because it tries to gloss over a couple of implications and get you to ignore them. Explicitly putting in those implications we get "If the AR15 is only cosmetically different from other assault rifles, then why is it more effective for self defense than non-assault rifles?"If the AR15 is only cosmetically different, then why is it more effective for self defense?"
The AR-15 is not more effective than a Mini-14. The AR-15 is more effective than a bolt action hunting rifle.
The anti argument above is trying to compare apples to oranges in order to confuse people.
[EDIT] And of course the next thing the anti side would say is 'well then we need to expand the definition of "assault rifle" to include everything except bolt action rifles.'