"Assault Weapon is a term invented by the press. The military merely calls them "Small Arms". In the Framer's intent, that means "arms".
One either supports the Second Ammendment or one doesn't. You seem to have given way to the liberals' view of "arms" being something one hunts with. It just isn't so.
Believe me, I haven’t given over to the any of the media’s opinions about
firearms because unlike you and me, they usually don’t own any. And while it might be fair to designate, say, a modified full-auto M4A3 or an after-market AK47 as “assault weapons” I am adamantly opposed to any restrictions on their sale to anyone who isn’t a criminal or crazy.
While they are all small arms, the most common ones, the military version that is, are called "assault rifles", which are defined as a select fire (either full auto or burst fire) rifles firing an intermediate power cartridge. Examples are M16/M4, AK family, SA-80. Some "Assault Weapons" aren't even rifles, but rather pistols or shotguns. Others are full power semiautomatic rifles, or pistol caliber semiautomatic carbines, some of which are submachine guns in their full auto versions. Some are more or less ordinary pistols