It's features dictate it's appearance. It's function dictates it appearance. And the law needs to read to that affect. Assault Weapons are only in the Military. The AR and all it's variants are in the civilian world and are directly the weapon chosen for getting a high body count in school, theater, ect. shootings. The day that you could go for a high body count with your glock and a shotgun or even a 9mm semi auto rifle are gone. The glock and the 9mm rifle have high fire rates but low rates of fatalities. And the shotgun is bulky as hell and only holds so many rounds.
I don't support confiscating the AR types but I do recommend that they are regulated more than they are today.