Lookn4Seated said:
sweet trade. I'm waiting to trade in my clad and putting it towards an AR-15.
Nice option. But I would warn you that living in Cook county you have to be a little careful. I currently do not own an AR-15 and wish I could as well as a Saiga 12. But there is a stupid Assult Weapons Ordinance that outlaws almost anything semi-auto which If you take the stupid law literally would even outlaw my Ruger 10-22. As a result, I have been careful to research what options are out there to be considered legal under this. It affects all cook except very specific 'home rule' municipalities.
I have a friend on law enforcement in a town in cook, and he says they only enforce state laws and had not heard of this stupid ban, but theoretically they are illegal and I would guess that a cook county sheriff would enforce. Of course its best if you want to own one, not to say I'm buying an AR-15 on this board. Its best to keep quiet if you do have one in this county.
You should look that nice piece of stupid legislation up, and read the descriptions of what are banned. For example the exact same gun (say a semi-auto that is limited to only receiving 10 rounds from a mag) becomes illegal if one of the following things happens to it: it can accept mags >10 rounds, it has a thumbhole in the stock, it has a barrel shroud, it has a muzzle break, it has a folding stock, it has a telescoping stock... you get the picture. I could take the exact same gun and say, I decided to put a thumbhole stock on it, it now becomes illegal, though its the same gun... stupid law. AR-15s are specifically enumerated as banned.
It is okay to own if you store it outside of cook county

That also means if you own one, only ranges that are outside of cook county will allow you to shoot one (technically).
You could save up a whole lot of money ($8000) and buy a MacMillan Tac 50, which is a bolt action 50cal which has an effective range of over 1 mile, can stop a semi truck with a single shot to the engine block, but a little .223 gun is illegal in cook...