The Ruger 10/22 is widely considered the best first rifle for people: cheap (~$250), cheap ammo (500 bullets ~$30), no recoil, easily maintained, hard to break, etc

A person new to shooting can fire it a thousand times a month for like $60.

Someone trying to get that much experience with a 9mm or such, would be forced to eat ramen that month.

It's also the honda civic of rifles.

Everyone knows how much overpriced bullshit you can attach to an AR15, turning an expensive gun into a cartoonish signal of your disposable income

The Ruger 10/22 is just as customizable, but all of it is cheap. A $10 bolt lock lever here, a $50 stock there, etc.

And, it's harder to make it look like a clown.

Another serious benefit is that it being a .22, means there's not as much weird gun fetishism about it.

All the real gun nuts want a tactical assault rifle that can kill a bear a mile away, and are busy arguing over $3,000 mods

So, a beginner can get one and pretty much avoid being peer pressured by algorithms and humans to spend their rent money transforming it.

Searching for stuff about it, yields fewer "this gun costs as much as a car" posts

A beginner can get one, get far more shooting time a month, *and* avoid the serious gun nuts who scoff at anything that doesn't cost a month's worth of income.

What's interesting is that it's considered good for precisely the qualities that make serious gun nuts ignore it.

It's not a status symbol showing off disposable income or masculinity, it's not enough gun for the guys yearning for helter skelter, and it's just not scary enough to appeal to people who are eager to kill people.

It's basically a gun almost designed to be accessible outside of wild-eyed preppers with tons of disposable cash and illegal WW2 paraphernalia.