I think its a misconception that just because the media hates these guns, everyone does..often those are the ones that appeal to non-gunnies. When the Boy Scouts were camping at our range last fall, they politely looked at my Garand and some of the pistols, but what they wanted to shoot were the ARs. My friends who don't shoot, or who only shoot shotguns, all think my AR is cool and want to try it. And when they find out it doesn't knock them over, they want to shoot it more.