[BlueSkyJaunte]

It's not a new trend. People have been trying to "solve" the AR-15's charging handle "problem" for decades.

I built my precision AR (6.5 Grendel) with a side-charger, but only because the scope I originally planned to use made hitting the latch on the normal handle somewhat difficult.

I ended up using a different scope on it anyway, and use the normal handle 99.9% of the time.

The only situation I can think of in which a side charger would be TRULY useful is if you were running the rifle suppressed and had the gas shut off (via an adjustable gas block). At that point the rifle would operate like a bolt action, and having to break your cheek weld for every shot (to run the standard charging handle) would be detrimental to accuracy.