Everyone knows it is not the classic definition of assault rifle to an enthusiast because it does not have a full auto switch.
But that is an utterly meaningless thing to argue in gun control world. It is like someone who asks if you want a coke meaning “soft drink”. It wont change and it doesn’t matter.
To the gun control person, even if you ever get them to agree to your proper terminology, they still want banning of semi auto variants of assault rifles. And it is an easy position for them to defend. A semi auto AR-15 should scare you more than a full auto in the hands of most people.
The USMC agrees that semi is the best way.
If I had a choice, and was 100 yards away from an average soldier or someone with an AR, I know I would rather endure two seconds of terror than the semi auto emptying of that mag.
I think its a waste of time to try to get them to adopt proper firearms terminology. Same for “bullet vs cartridge”.
Which is why an assault rifle is selective fire. But I get your point. In a similar vein, at a range of 100 yards or less there is no optic which wouldn't derease the time it takes to aquire my target and wouldn't help my accuracy at all. But everyone nowadays just has to hang a red dot on their AR-15. Better they should learn how to drive nails with iron sights, which just isn't that hard to learn at ranges up to 100 yards, especially with a good aperture sight. Heck, I've got an old lever action that shoots MOA at 100 yeards easily with just an old notch and groove sights.