It's quite possible the answer to the bolded is yes.
"Possible" is not the same as "likely". We see mass shooters use other weapons. In fact, "assault weapons" are a minority even among mass shootings.
And Columbine happened during the "assault weapons" ban. Didn't deter Harris and Klebold.
Not only is there a cool factor but there is a psychological factor of owning such weapons.
That would be part of psychology.
Do you think Rittenhouse would have made his way into the situation he went into if he didn't have the AR but only had knives or handguns. I don't think so.
Rittenhouse was defending himself from being attacked. He did not initiate any violence, so he is a strange example here.
I do not know if he would have went, but Josef Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz went to the riot and initiated violence even though they were armed with nothing, a skateboard and a handgun respectively.
It's a well known fact that carrying a firearm has a psychological effect upon the carrier. The effect allows the carrier to do things and get into situations they normally would not.
A firearm. Not necessarily a specific kind of firearm. This is all about the idea that if so-called "assault weapons" were banned, school shooters and other mass shooters would use other weapons, rather than give up. Using only handguns did not prevent Seung-Hui Cho from being a very effective mass shooter.
