I remember when my wife first shot the AR. She looked over at me and had a big smile on her face and stated that she really liked it. She still tells people how much fun they are to shoot.
It's funny how the media makes it such a scary, intimidating weapon when it's really the opposite.
A co-workers 17 year old daughter wants to join the Marines. They are not a "gun family". He bought her a CZ 457 to start practicing with. She was intimidated by the AR reputation and afraid of shooting the rifle for the first time during Boot Camp, so I offered to let them come out to the range and I would give her a a little introduction to the semi-auto version at least, basic operation and field stripping.
Yeah, I'm leaving lots of details out so I can get to the point...
HUGE smile. She ended up shooting with irons and a 7x scope. She spent the rest of the day banging a 3 inch steel target at 100 yards. I think she was pretty much done with the CZ from there on out.
Dad liked the ARs too, but thought they were a little loud and he took the 22 back down to the 50yd range.
Funny part of the story. When I started her out I only put ten rounds in the magazine. For the rest of the day she followed suit and only put ten rounds in the mag each time she reloaded. I can only imagine the smile she's going to have when she figures out that she can actually put 30 in there!