Guns seem to be a major preoccupation with preppers, to the point of fetishism. I agree it’s important to have one or more, but they may be less important than you might think. Here’s some reasons why:

• Your house/trailer/apartment isn’t set up to repel a coordinated assault by armed soldiers. Poking a rifle out a window is going to get you killed. No sandbags, trenches, revements, etc.
• You need to be invisible to live. This means staying indoors by day, not walking around or blasting off rounds at the occasional wanderer. Firing attracts unwanted attention and can be heard for miles, esp. military rifles.
• You are unlikely to use them to hunt as a primary food source, unless you live in a remote area with lots of game.

You need them as a last-resort option, as point defense but I can’t see anyone doing a lot of shooting, or at anything but close/mid range.

Let’s look at the other common assumption; the riff raff is armed and I need to protect my home:

• Said riff raff is unlikely to be organized, packing any quantity of ammunition, or in clip/mag form, capable/willing of sustaining a high rate of fire, or willing to risk death. They will likely leave for easier pickings if resistance is found.  This isn’t the Waffen SS…
• Riff raff has to travel on foot, though hostile territory, with no supplies, just to get to you. No food, water, or resupply. Once they exhaust their ammo, they are in trouble.
• Riff raff has no idea which house will have a defender, or what the layout is. Every house is a potential death trap. Urban combat is the bane of all soldiers, just ask a veteran. There are lots of guys who got killed or wounded in Iraq/Afghan looking for insurgents in built up areas.

I’m not seeing the case for putting resources into 25,000 rounds of 5.56,  an AR-15, an illegal M-60 , etc. Empty sandbags and a trenching tool is a better deal.