OK Folks, per a hint from Spats, I think it's time we went down this road.
What the heck exactly is an "Assault Weapon"?
Probably easier to define what it isn't first.
It isn't an Assault Rifle. Assault Rifles have the ability to have the mode of fire selected between (not inclusive) Semi-Automatic, Full Automatic and multiple round bursts.
So, what the heck is an "Assault Weapon" really?
According to Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_weapon ,
"Assault weapon refers to different types of firearms and weapons, and is a term that has differing meanings, usages and purposes."
Boy, that's a lot of help isn't it? Looks like I could call a rock an assault weapon based on that definition.
And I think that's just the point.
Somebody came up with the term so they would have a one size fits all definition of anything they want banned or restricted.
The purpose is to take the non-gun owning civilian population and scare the crap out of them with this term.
Most people understand what a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is. They also have a basic idea what a weapon of war is. And everyone knows what an assault is. Use the fear associated with the word "Weapon" and add the even scarier word "Assault" to the front and the average civilian non-gun owner thinks of machine-guns and grenade launchers.
OK, I got it started. Now, we should be able to go further down this road intelligently and hopefully keep the name calling in check.
Am I right? Am I wrong? Did I miss anything? Legally and/or legislatively did I miss something?
And as an afterthought, why are we allowing our elected officials to use this term without consequence?
BTW, The NRA now tells its instructors to NOT use the word "weapon" during any training classes. We are to use words like: Gun, Handgun, Pistol, Rifle, and Firearm to describe the device.