Liberals and other knee-jerk anti-fireams types think the “auto” stands for auto-firing. You load it, set it on a table and it just starts shooting... automatically, all by itself. They are clueless that auto means auto-loading when referring to fireams similar to the venerable M1911A1 and subsequent variants that automatically chamber a round. Freepers already know these things so I’m preaching to the choir.
We now need to move past the preaching and recognize that no term we come up with intended to make firearms less terrifying to the average metrosexual will ever help.
"Self-loading" -- (Oh my GOD! It loads itself!)
"Sidearm" -- (Oh my GOD! Now they're carrying it around in a holster like the Old West!)
"Self-defense" -- (Oh my GOD! How selfish!)
"Concealed carry" -- (Oh my GOD! Just like that hitman I saw on CSI:Miami last night!)
"Autoloader" -- (Oh my GOD! Those are the ones where you file down the firing pin and it goes like a machine gun!)
A well reasoned and rational argument will never beat out Andrew Sorkin's fictional and sensationalist crime dramas on the teevee. The only thing that works is taking someone who fears guns out shooting.