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Gear evolves. Sure most the gear evolving is on the front lines in very different situations than what the 85th percentile would ever see in defensive situations 
On the other hand....the fact that gear evolution does trickle down to sportsmen, and to the hiking/backpacking community...it can be good. I don't mean a hunter should look all decked out to do battle at Fallujah, in the woods of Olympic National Park But I mean the materials and the designs can be very well suited for such...say, modular belt kits, chest harnesses, backpacks made of the same durable materials
If these things happen to have the word "Tactical" somewhere on them or from a company calling itself Tactical something...so what? It does not negate the usefulness of these items
Now.. "Tactical pens" and the like..yeah it gets silly sometimes. Most of these are probably meant for jokes or gag gifts.
Here is one extreme example.... "Tactical Corsets"
And here is a more sensible, though still silly example; of a rig "made and designed for women"
style/fashion statements aside.... yeah. there are sensible gear that can be used in tactical situations, and then there's the fashion gear that maybe not quite useful in tactical situations. (Waiting for that "Tactical jockstrap")
As for the whole M4/M16/AR thing... it maybe just a matter of being the most popular rifle series in the United States simply due to AWB 2.0 fears and politics, as well as an amazing level of demand for them. I think it could be comparable to the demand and requests for the classic lever action carbines in the Old West, because the military and the police used them in the Indian Wars and they were very good for hunting and defense.. so the lever action became the popular civil weapon when the Military went to bolt actions and then to semi autos... and then after WW2.... all the cheap surplus rifles from various nations became the go to for sporter conversions and quite useful.... and I'm sure there were a great many stories of M1 Garands and M1 Carbines being brought home and used by many people...am I wrong? Only the M16/M4 has the unique status of having been full auto/3rd burst as issued to the military, and thus not able to be released to civil usage except as NFA items, and then the FOPA act of 86 made the supply artificially smaller....but the semi auto versions have always been available...
I do remember clearly, during the Clinton AWB ban, that AR15s were available from a select few companies, the largest being Colt... and they averaged $1500 per unit in Oregon, with some approaching $3000, usually for free floated, bull barreled, solid stocked 20"+ "sniper" flat top models..
and $2000 or so for the "Pre ban" A2 styled sporters. Of course this was when AK patterned sporters and SKS were available for very cheap prices.
On the other hand....the fact that gear evolution does trickle down to sportsmen, and to the hiking/backpacking community...it can be good. I don't mean a hunter should look all decked out to do battle at Fallujah, in the woods of Olympic National Park
But I mean the materials and the designs can be very well suited for such...say, modular belt kits, chest harnesses, backpacks made of the same durable materials If these things happen to have the word "Tactical" somewhere on them or from a company calling itself Tactical something...so what? It does not negate the usefulness of these items
Now.. "Tactical pens" and the like..yeah it gets silly sometimes. Most of these are probably meant for jokes or gag gifts.
Here is one extreme example.... "Tactical Corsets"
And here is a more sensible, though still silly example; of a rig "made and designed for women"
style/fashion statements aside.... yeah. there are sensible gear that can be used in tactical situations, and then there's the fashion gear that maybe not quite useful in tactical situations. (Waiting for that "Tactical jockstrap"
) As for the whole M4/M16/AR thing... it maybe just a matter of being the most popular rifle series in the United States simply due to AWB 2.0 fears and politics, as well as an amazing level of demand for them. I think it could be comparable to the demand and requests for the classic lever action carbines in the Old West, because the military and the police used them in the Indian Wars and they were very good for hunting and defense.. so the lever action became the popular civil weapon when the Military went to bolt actions and then to semi autos... and then after WW2.... all the cheap surplus rifles from various nations became the go to for sporter conversions and quite useful.... and I'm sure there were a great many stories of M1 Garands and M1 Carbines being brought home and used by many people...am I wrong? Only the M16/M4 has the unique status of having been full auto/3rd burst as issued to the military, and thus not able to be released to civil usage except as NFA items, and then the FOPA act of 86 made the supply artificially smaller....but the semi auto versions have always been available...
I do remember clearly, during the Clinton AWB ban, that AR15s were available from a select few companies, the largest being Colt... and they averaged $1500 per unit in Oregon, with some approaching $3000, usually for free floated, bull barreled, solid stocked 20"+ "sniper" flat top models..
and $2000 or so for the "Pre ban" A2 styled sporters. Of course this was when AK patterned sporters and SKS were available for very cheap prices.
