The Surprisingly Solid Mathematical Case of the Tin Foil Hat Gun Prepper
The problem I have is when people say that they need an ar15 (or any automatic rifle) to defend themselves, family,  or to protect their property. I’ll put the last out of the way first: theft is not a capital offense, so someone stealing your car is not a reason to shoot them.<p>For the other options a automatic rifle is an poor choice. No rifle has any difficulty going through dry wall or cladding, so if you’re in any urban or suburban location your odds of hitting someone else (like your family members or neighbors) is reasonably high.<p>For rifles like ar15s you’re  firing bullets that will go through whoever you hit, if you do hit them. Given they’re automatic, you’re presumably planning on firing many rounds, which further increases the risk to others.<p>Presumably part of the reason to want an automatic weapon is to manage missing the target - that’s why soldiers have them. Of course a soldier has another thing a preppier doesn’t have: all the people in one direction are valid targets.<p>This isn’t the case if you’re not on a battlefield.<p>Then there’s the practicality of the “protect my family” argument. For that to be useful your gun (of any kind) has to be loaded and easily accessible - which is a good way to add to the statistics of children accidentally killing themselves or others with their parents guns.<p>Finally - if you &#x2F;really&#x2F; want to have a gun to “protect your family&#x2F;self” use a shotgun. There’s less harm to people who aren’t directly in the line of fire, the effective distance is vastly shorter so less risk to people in other rooms, and you don’t have to be as good at aiming.<p>High powered automatic rifles don’t belong off a battlefield.