I don't think that's the reasoning behind it. I think it's more that they've been made the scariest form of gun by the media (disregarding the fact that pistols

I don't think that's the reasoning behind it. I think it's more that they've been made the scariest form of gun by the media (disregarding the fact that pistols kill an order of magnitude more people). Any time a semi-automatic centerfire magazine fed rifle is used in a mass shooting, media outlets want to focus on the weapon the shooter used. Then people who know nothing about guns except that they hate them rally to ban the ones with the aesthetic features they've seen on TV, and that's how you get idiotic legislation like California's assault weapon laws (ex: a rifle with a pistol grip is illegal while the exact same gun with a rifle stock is legal).