Bolt rifles
The original poster stated:
"I don't understand why some people prefer bolt action due to it always having a lower rate of fire."
While a faster rate of fire can have importance in military applications, and rarely in law enforcement, its relevance in most civilian applications is minimal.
For the military, suppressive fire is a useful tactical principle in some circumstances. For law enforcement, a rapid rate of fire is beneficial only in very limited circumstances, and has the potential to dramatically increase risk to the public. For example, in 2012 two NYPD officers shot and killed an armed murderer in front of the Empire State building. The two rapidly fired a total of 16 rounds; 7 hit the perpetrator, but 9 bystanders were also hit with bullets or fragments. Now there is no doubt that they did the right thing, what they were sworn to do. But in this case one has to wonder if the "rate of fire" was a factor in the civilian injuries, which fortunately did not result in deaths. In NYC, semiauto rifles are issued to only specially trained police, such as the Emergency Services Division, or more recently, antiterrorism units, in part due to the potential risk to the public.
In civilian self-defense incidents, the available data make it clear that aimed shots that actually strike a miscreant are the most critical factor, not the number of rounds fired.