[holymoly]

...yet what is an "assault rifle", exactly, except a boogyman created by the media? In reality, they are firearms that just look too intimidating, too black, or just too ugly.

To the liberal, anti-gun media, yes.

However, both the term "Assault Rifle", and it's definition, come from the German "Sturmgewehr".

Assault Rifle

Military firearm that is chambered for ammunition of reduced size or propellant charge and that has the capacity to switch between semiautomatic and fully automatic fire.

- Encyclopedia Britannica

[JudgemAll]

The military thinks in terms of fit of weapon. Whether it is an assault rifle or a battle rifle is purely for form of attack & usage for a commander. It is irrelevant in the civilian sector. In fact military "style" rifles are a hindrance for the optimum civilian defense concept.

The civilian is allowed industry & tooling of firearms to its modes.

Tomorrow the NRA could pool a bunch of engineering & shooter enthusiasts & pull up the "civilian rifle", and it'd be far more lethal than those "assault rifles" because optimaly designed for our personal usage.

If that's what they want, then I'm all for it.

[theBuckwheat]

The term "assault rifle" is an ideo-political term that was coined by hoplophobic gun-grabbers as a means of seizing the moral high ground and justifying their positions.

I would doubt that in the last 10 years that a single story in the MSM that used the term "assault weapon" used it with the real definition that you cited. It just means a gun that looks like it could do bad things.

Recall the principle that the party who defines the meaning of words in a debate controls the debate itself. Libs have turned this fancy way of telling a lie into an art form.