the link below provides historical context specifically re: the AR-15. I've been researching this topic the last few days and this article encapsulates things clearly based on my other reading.
I grew up in the 60's and 70's, around hunters. The standard hunting rifle was common and visible. I don't recall any instance of people bragging about having any other type of gun (even though they did, pistols, for example). In fact, it wasn't until my dad passed away 10 years ago (he's a Vietnam vet) that I learned he had a gun in the house all along.
I noticed a change in the 80's. Chest-thumping types (white collar and blue collar, btw) started collecting Uzi's and Glocks, bragging about them; I have a feeling gun ranges became more plentiful around that same time though I haven't researched that yet. Lots of people who wanted the "bling" of being in the military without BEING in the military started to come out of the woodwork, bragging about their military-style weaponry.
Not long after it started selling M-16s to the military, Colt began marketing the semi-automatic AR-15 to civilians. The company gave it the gentler name of the "Sporter," and described it as a hunting rifle.
But the gun, designed for close, confusing combat, was not an immediate hit. In the eyes of many gun enthusiasts, the "black rifle" -- as it was nicknamed -- was ugly and expensive.
"To its champions, the AR-15 was an embodiment of fresh thinking. Critics saw it as an ugly little toy," wrote C.J. Chivers in his book, "The Gun."
In July 1981, the fan magazine Guns and Ammo waxed eloquent about the Sporter's unappealing reputation.
"Most shooters and veteran riflemen look down their noses at these steel-stamped rifles as remnants from an erector set. The turn-bolt aficionado looks with a great deal of disdain at anybody toting one of these space-age rifles with plastic stocks and fore-ends. The dyed-in-the-wool deer hunter watching his domain being infiltrated by these black and gray guns assumes that these 'new generation' hunters are merely fantasizing 'war games' and are playing 'soldier.'"
Instead, the gun was mainly sold to law enforcement and other narrower demographics -- notably, "survivalists" who imagined they would one day face combat situations in an apocalyptic future, according to Tom Diaz, a gun expert and author of "Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America."
https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/14/health/ar15-rifle-history-trnd/index.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
