> Somewhat sadly

Weapons can be used for defensive purposes. There's nothing inherently wrong with them, only how people use them.

> parts you couldn't use parts from one rifle on another without a smith

You cannot swap bolts in the field on most rifles. At minimum, you require a go/no go gauge. The tolerances on modern firearms are very precise.

That the tolerances are so precise is exactly why you can do that on most modern rifles. It depends on the design - specifically, how they achieve headspace. On an AR-15, or almost any firearm with a similar bolt locking arrangement, bolts - indeed, entire BCGs - are swappable in practice, and people do that routinely without bothering with gauges regardless of what the manual says. On AK and similar designs, yeah, that's a really bad idea.