The Firearm Debate

I was a teenager in the 1980s and the current rally cry by the right about assault weapons was something you just didn't hear. No one owned an assault rifle thirty years ago. Now, owning an assault rifle is framed as a necessary right covered by the Second Amendment. So, my question is, were we less free in the 1980s when citizens couldn't purchase what is essentially an M16? I don't recall feeling less free. I was, however, less likely to be massacred in a mass shooting.