My Savage-Anschutz 22LR came from my grandfather. I'll keep it for sentiment even though we never shot it very often.
The AR; I was looking for a defensive weapon that was semi auto, good stopping power, hi capacity mags easily available, capable of better accuracy than me out to 300, quality, reliable.
I was tempted by AK's, from a reliability and price standpoint, but the functionality of the safety and the magazine release, accuracy, and weight threw the balance to AR.

Now I'm looking at MG's and handguns, but I'm sure it will be a while before any discretionary $ comes available.