Every left leaning liberal American who can lawfully own a gun, should own a gun.

[Dial H For Hero]

24. Again, context. Our hypothetical person is someone preparing to fight in a civil war who has

purchased their weapon(s) some time prior to the conflict. One presumes they're not going to simply put their rifle in a closet and then years later take it out, blow off the dust, and try to figure out how it works now that the bullets have started flying....they'll have at least taken it to the range a number of times and familiarized themselves with it.

As for the recoil of a 5.56 rifle, describing it as "traumatic" is rather hyperbolic You may wish to peruse a recent thread here in RKBA on just that subject (if you haven't already). In it, there's a video of a guy shooting an AR-15 multiple times while it's rested against his nose. No trauma results.

it's heavy for a novice.

A 6 1/2 lb. rifle is "heavy" for an adult?