An "assault weapon" is any weapon used to assault another. A baseball bat, wood club, glass bottle, a fist or a thermonuclear bomb can all be assault weapons. If you aren't engaged in the action what you have is not an assault weapon.
This is ONE definition allowed in English. There are others, more germane to the issue.
one more time, for the record (cue the choir...)
ASSAULT RIFLE
coined by Adolph Hitler in 1944, renaming the MP44 (
MaschinenPistole =submachinegun) the
Sturmgewehr (Assault rifle). Assault in this term is used in the military sense, such as assaulting an objective.
Sturm means "storm" and context determines if the storm is weather like a snowstorm or storm in the military sense, storming an objective.
The term Assault Rifle has been applied to weapons in the same class as the Sturmgewehr by both the military and shooting communities since then.
Defining features of the class are select fire capability, and firing an "intermediate" cartridge (one in between a standard WWII pistol round and rifle round in power)
ASSAULT WEAPON
a term made up by anti gun forces, and codified into Federal Law (and several states) in 1994. In LAW this term covers SEMIAUTOMATIC firearms, (rifle, pistol, & shotgun) if they have a given number of features on the list in the law. Features include (but not limited to) detatchable magazine, pistol grip, folding stock, bayonet lug, forward pistol grip, heat shield/handguard, flash suppressor, etc.
The anti's DELIBERATELY chose a term nearly identical to, and easily confused with "assault rifle".
I have no issues embracing assault rifle, IF you use the term CORRECTLY.