I will admit I may not be totally correct about the AR but IMO regular people don't need to own people killing machines.
For example I was just on Glocks site today. They had several firearms that they would not sell to the general public. They had captions that stated for police service only. And they looked just like plain old Glock pistols nothing special.
What do you use your AR for?
It doesn't matter the cal. size, type, mag capability of the firearm, they are all "people killing machines", In the wrong hands, they do and will kill and maim. It is a complete tragedy what has unfolded as of late, and I feel the worst isn't over, with the "end of the world" coming and all. People since the beginning of time have sought out and slaughtered others, just with a different variety of weapons. People want to ban hi cap mags, and assault style weapons, but you can fit 20+1 rounds in some standard handgun mags... Dump and reload, you can send 20,40,60 rounds down range in less than a minute, and completely concealed. I know with a 30rd mag, that time is quite less, but you get the idea.
It is messed up that these cowards choose places to assault possibly due to being gun free zones, the fact that they know they won't be challenged. Not saying that is the case in all situations, but think if a teacher, or mall go-er would have been armed, My feelings are less people would've died. But it is up to all of us as a whole, to try and curtail issues we see in everyday life, no matter how trivial they may be. Whether it is our friends, family, children, people we see on a daily, or just something that doesn't seem right, act on our gut feeling. Like the lady at the town center, who saw the shooter run by her car, drop a full mag, she inspected it, and left it, decided to head towards mall to complete her shopping. If she would have thought it through, she would've called 911 instantly, no hesitation. People are so wrapped up in their own little worlds that things like this just slip through the cracks.