One point of difficulty is that the early reports and media reports are often wrong on the specific facts. Any scary looking long gun with plastic furniture is an AR-15, if the scary looking long gun has wood furniture it is an AK-47, if it is a handgun it is a Glock.
These terms are used because these guns are in common use (and for Glock, I think it largely has to do with the fact it rhymes well and easily in rap lyrics that have pushed into the mainstream), and because the people reporting them do not know anything, on a purely factual level, about firearms. Back when I used to watch the news before giving up on it, it happened frequently that the photographs shown of the incident would not match the news description.
Nonetheless, it is likely that the AR-15 is used in a fairly significant amount of mass shootings wherein the criminal uses a long gun (which is a minority of mass shootings, rifles are not suited to stealth or surprise). This is not because it fires special or high-power bullets (it does the opposite). It is possible some people think it looks cool and edgy and that has influenced some. The same could be said of many guns of a similar aesthetic type, but it is possible. It seems to me it is most likely because it is, by far, the most common rifle in America. Honda Civics are involved in tons of accidents, not because they are difficult to steer or they are poorly made but because they are everywhere. Go to the rifle range, and there are probably at least as many AR-15's out on the tables as there are shooters. Half the rifles or more at your local gun store will be an AR-15. The advantages and disadvantages of the AR platform in particular don't really apply much to the type of situation under current discussion. A person shooting at unarmed and defenseless people in a 'gun-free zone' is not particularly helped or hampered by this platform as opposed to dozens of others.
DGU's are impossible to count because many are never reported (it's hard for a massacre not to enter the statistics, or a suicide) and most never require discharging the firearm. Even the anti-gun CDC report, commissioned specifically for that purpose, found up to 3.5mm.
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