NBC ran an article this week, titled, “America’s rifle: Why so many people love the AR-15.”
Within the article was an infographic that should pretty much shut down the debate for banning AR-pattern rifles.  See below:

(Infographic: NBC News)

Turns out ARs aren’t the death machines the media makes them out to be. They “account for relatively few murders,” as NBC notes.  Gun grabbers should put this info in their disarm-America-peace pipe and smoke it.
Of course, they’ll argue that ARs are used in mass shootings (as NBC did in the video below).  That’s why we need to ban them.  But the truth is almost any firearm can be used to kill a bunch of people in a short amount of time, especially in gun-free zones, in places where there is little, if any, armed resistance.  The Virginia Tech shooter killed 32 people — with handguns.

Shall we ban handguns? Well, gun banners tried that.  The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence used to be known as the Coalition to Ban Handguns. Why did it change its name?  Maybe because public support for banning handguns has consistently wanned over the past three decades.

SEE ALSO: Salon: ‘U.S. was actually founded on gun control’

Why does the public by and large oppose banning handguns?  Because as many times as bad people use handguns to do bad things in this country, more good people use handguns to defend themselves, their loved ones and their property.  Handguns are fundamentally tied to one’s right to self-defense. Take handguns away and you’ve effectively taken the Second Amendment away.
What this all boils down to is that it’s not the gun that matters. It’s the person behind the trigger.  We can ban either category of firearms and we’d still have gun murders and mass shootings.  Heck, we can even ban all firearms and we’d still have gun murders and mass shootings.  Just like they do in Europe.
As always, fighting crime is a function of taking bad guys off the streets.  The weapons — guns, cars, pipe bombs, knives, bats, etc. — they use are immaterial.