Part of what this article overlooks is that military style rifles are popular because they are objectively better rifles. For several years, I've fed my family

Part of what this article overlooks is that military style rifles are popular because they are objectively better rifles. For several years, I've fed my family for months by shooting a single large animal, processing the meat myself, and freezing it. I'm solidly in the hunter category, not the "tactard" category the article describes. But I've switched over to using a military style rifle because it is more accurate, lighter to carry in the field, and the parts for it are vastly cheaper than the bolt action rifle I used to hunt with. I also use tan rifles instead of black ones not for tactical appeal but because they don't get as hot in the sun. Moreover, you don't have to carry a 30-round magazine in an AR-15. I hunt with a 5 round magazine even though the law would allow more because I don't need to carry 25 extra rounds of ammo. It's too heavy and the tall magazine makes taking accurate shots harder. In short, if the AR action weren't so good, and the barrels weren't so accurate, I would still be on a bolt gun. But I have a large caliber AR-based rifle that is vastly superior to anything else at the price point.