Can someone give me a rational reason why law abiding citizens need assault weapons?

[gameface]

For the enjoyment of shooting it.

I know people who use AR-15s to hunt coyotes, so it can legitimately be used for hunting, despite what people say.

It is a powerful firearm, but I feel that it has been built up by those who want to ban it as some uber-powerful rapid fire machine that is on a whole different level than other semi-auto rifles and hand guns. It's not incredibly more powerful than any other gun. All the varieties of guns that exist offer trade-offs compared to one another. Semi-auto rifles are no different. They have some applications they are well suited for and many applications they are not well suited for.

If there was a major natural disaster and I was protecting myself and my family from mobs of people I would want an AR-15 over many other rifles.

That said, I have owned an AR-15 and sold it within a few months because I didn't enjoy shooting it very much. While I can see why some people would want one it didn't suit my needs.

In the end our freedoms don't need to be justified by a demonstration of what good we will do with said freedoms. Freedom should be the default position. People should be free to do what they want and own what they want by basic principle.