I for one love to hear opposing views because if you don't feel strongly one way or the other it makes for very interesting reading.

Oh, I am in the UK and own a real AR-15 and a Sterling L2A3 - ok they were cut up and welded back together but they look real nice! The actions work to some extent, but if you want noise you have to get a blank firer (like my Beretta 92F - looks and sounds like the real thing, not that I've heard the real thing though)

The laws however are such that even though they are not firearms if you used them (or even a gun shaped piece of wood) in a way that somebody believed it was a firearm, it *is* are firearm for the purposes of law. Even stun-guns/tazers are firearms in the UK and are illegal - very silly considering people go to France and bring them back all the time - you are highly unlikely to get caught by customs.

Gareth