Most AR-15's nowadays are actually used for hunting and competitive shooting.  I COULD use mine for home defense, but it;d be faster to use my Glock .40 caliber or my Mossberg 500 Rolling Thunder to take care of it.  To quell any arguments, my PRIMARY use for this guy is for fun at the range, learning proper marksmanship and to further my military qualifications.  I use fully automatic versions of this in the service. Mine obviously is only a semi automatic, so no ratatatatat. Only one bang per trigger pull   Conserves ammunition though, and if I can say one thing, ammo has almost DOUBLEd in price here in the US since 2005.

So I think perhaps my thread title of "toy" was a little juvenile but I think we are all entitled to our opinion. I further encourage those who dont like guns or are afraid of them[ not pointing fingers] to take a course, try one out a range under supervision, go "plinking" with a small caliber .22 or an AR and dollars to doughnuts there be a smile on your face once you start hitting your targets