Joke's on me because I couldn't get one even if I wanted. I can get a bunch of other, deadlier rifles, but not an AR.
I want a rifle that will blow a hole in a home invader the size of a grapefruit.
i personally wouldn't seek out a ar for home defense
imo, if you're wanting home defense, you're wanting some combination of; a semi auto shotgun with as good a balance between fire rate and reliability as you can get for your budget, a easily accessible pistol, mainly for whenever leaving and carrying, 357 snub nose is good for power, simplicity, easily hidden and drawn, and small barrel length so minimal risk at someone pushing i t or succesfully fighting you for it, and finally worst case scenario or in areas you can't carry stuff like that, you want something blunt, not sharp. remember seeing a old biker gang member post or something akin someone posted somewhere else, always go blunt, not knife, you can slice/stab someone a lot and they'll still be well in their right mind, even if you anime it and they're bleeding out, you want something akin to a hammer, like a ball peen, but whatever you use, blunt force makes someone recoil much more, and if there's a druggy with a knife etc, you never ever want to get into a knife fight, you nearly always lose even if you win unless you're military trained in them, so if gun's not available, hammer staggers them more and wins. ideally though you want to escape, preferably to a gun.
another big underrated thing is a very good light, for both target assessment (criminal or family member) and shock n awe, nobody is entering your house with light prevention goggles or some shit, so it's simple and always works, and if you shine it in their eyes you should easily have a couple free seconds of them "wat the fuk nigga" at minimum to blow them away. semi auto shotgun with a ar-ish length barrel is the best chance for a common man to do john wick shit, a conventional ar's barrel length and shooting pattern is a risk, way too easy to miss a shot/s in a house and have to wrestle for it, a pistol's better but especially when panicking, too easy to miss, especially for an average joe. you also likely won't be able to do soldier esque shit of multiple targets fast, so again, shotgun. only big downside of shotgun is collateral, so if you have family you need to be more aware of positioning, how wide your shots are etc. but if you're in a conventional setting of 2+ invaders in a home setting, your best bet is always going to be acting as much like a shock n awe shotgun rusher tard you can like in gears of war
if you're in something more like a homestead defense scenario or having to hunt something too close to home that's dangerous, you want some form of conventional scoped semi auto rifle, not ar. or at least something like a m1 garand frame you can use the iron sights on and see well enough. unless you want it for novelty or collecting fun or got one for free i think they're severly overrated. in incoming worst case scenarios, in a perfect world i'd recommend carrying a easily drawn pistol as close as you can to 24/7 in case of shock n awe invasions, and a easily accessible shotgun/s near entry doors. best to always plan for multiple invaders, if you're just thinking of one then i mean yeah about anything works, whatever. of course, beyond any of that, your best bet is making your doors/windows strong af, and making sure your wife/kids can have fast access to a room that is very easily blockaded and reached, so if something happened to you, they at least reach there and your last moments won't be some "urban youths" saying/doing "muh dick"