That’s not an assault rifle. And there’s no such thing as an ‘assault weapon’ so what are these media people yammering about?
You are right what he shot was not an “assault rifle” it is a semi automatic short barreled rifle missing the stock and with a “pistol brace” instead to skirt the ATF tax stamp law. But you are wrong real assault rifles do exist
The StG 44 literally known as the Sturmgewehr 44 which in English translates to assault rifle 44 is a select fire rifle from WW2 firing a intermediate power level cartridge designed to be light weight to allow an individual Stoßtruppen lit. Storm trooper to carry much more ammo than a full weight battle rifle would allow. The key points are select fire with a full automatic setting and high capacity magazines to allow for that full auto to be effectively used. Battle rifles had 6 to 8 round magazines and the StG44 was 30 or more. So any intermediate power and high capacity select fire rifle such as the M4A3 is by definition an assault rifle. Without select fire a rifle CANNOT BE an assault rifle in the military sense. Politicians can word laws how they like but to a military unit an assault rifle is a specific item.