General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Would you support repeal of the Second Amendment? [View all]Johnny Rico
(1,438 posts)"Assault Weapon" is something of an invented term, used by gun control advocates to describe guns with cosmetic features that they find distasteful. Here's an article on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban
In the former U.S. law, the legal term assault weapon included certain specific semi-automatic firearm models by name (e.g., Colt AR-15, TEC-9, non select-fire AK-47s produced by three manufacturers, and Uzis) and other semi-automatic firearms because they possess a minimum set of cosmetic features from the following list of features:
Semi-automatic rifles able to accept detachable magazines and two or more of the following:
Folding or telescoping stock
Pistol grip
Bayonet mount
Flash suppressor, or threaded barrel designed to accommodate one
Grenade launcher (more precisely, a muzzle device which enables the launching or firing of rifle grenades, though strangely, this applies only to muzzle mounted grenade launchers and not those which are mounted externally)
Semi-automatic pistols with detachable magazines and two or more of the following:
Magazine that attaches outside the pistol grip
Threaded barrel to attach barrel extender, flash suppressor, handgrip, or suppressor
Barrel shroud that can be used as a hand-hold
Unloaded weight of 50 oz (1.4 kg) or more
A semi-automatic version of a fully automatic firearm
Semi-automatic shotguns with two or more of the following:
Folding or telescoping stock
Pistol grip
Fixed capacity of more than 5 rounds
Detachable magazine
As soon as the assault weapons ban passed, gunmakers followed it to the letter by not including such features as bayonet lugs on their rifles. This resulted in companies such as Colt switching from making this "pre-ban" AR-15 which was defined as as "assault weapon":
'
And instead they made this "post-ban" AR-15 which was not an assault weapon:
No bayonet lug or flash hider! By the logic of the AWB, that make it less dangerous!
Anyhoo, the Ban expired in 2004 (thankfully), and gun manufacturers are pumping out weapons that would be defined as "assault weapons" by the bucketful. In fact, the AR-15 is now the most popular centerfire rifle in America.
Bottom line: An "Assault Weapon" is simply a semiautomatic weapon that looks, well, nasty. Lots of black plastic instead of wood, and a pistol grip. This rifle, the Mini-14, is not and has never been considered an assault rifle:
And yet it fires the exact same round as the AR-15s pictured above, at exactly the same rate of fire. In practical terms, they're function identically...yet the Feds tried to ban one and not the other based entirely on cosmetics!
so machine guns are limited...that's a good thing.
Sez you...