What AR-15s and Plastic Straws Share, and Why Banning "Assault Rifles" Won't Save One Life

How did AR-15s become the plastic straws of the gun world? It's simple: Demagogues need scapegoats. Yet just as banning plastic straws won't make a dent in the ocean-polluting plastics problem, banning "assault rifles" (which aren't) won't save even one life. It's tragic how, just like faddish teenagers playing a dangerous or stupid social-media-driven prank, so-called adults go on misguided, media-driven, lynch-mob kicks. Remember when SUVs were demonized as planet killers approximately 15 to 20 years ago? Some environmentalists claimed that SUV drivers were essentially "hate group" members, and other vandalism-crazy greenies would, ironically, set fire to the vehicles to combat global warming. Yet SUVs currently appear more popular than ever, and all is quiet on the gas-guzzler front. What happened? The demagogues and their dupes have moved on to a different neurotic fixation.