What is an assault rifle?

The unknowing public, any rifle with military like features such as a pistol grip or high capacity detachable magazine is an assault rifle and therefore evil. When you have agencies like ABC News trying desperately to make connections between the Tea Party and the murderer, the actual technical definition of an assault rifle means nothing.

I personally corrected my high school civics teacher once on the subject, as somehow the topic of gun control had come up in a class discussion and she made some comments to the effect of hunters with assault rifles "blowing away" deer in the forests. In her mind, assault rifles were equivalent to the 30mm gatling gun from an A10 Warthog. And yet, she still had a strong opinion on gun control...
 
There is no clear definition. The media does not know what they mean. Having worked in the media for 5 years they often do not spend enough time to truly understand most technical terms. When they label something as "understood" by the public they accept it and move on. They are looking to move a story quick so details and facts are often over looked. Honestly, I am not sure any one knows what is meant by assault rifle because it has changed, been misused and is now overused it is hard to determine. I do think that the color black is important to the media's determination and 10+ round magazine called a clip by most reporters.
 
The horse has left the barn. Language evolves and the semi auto derivatives of military guns are now assault wepaons in the minds of the vast majority of folks. Gun folks can chortle that they are igorant or try to go on TV and say that a semi isn't full auto - blah, blah.

It won't make a difference.

The idea is to convince the public that the semi guns aren't really that dangerous as the full auto - so please, please - can I keep mine, I'll be good.

The NSSF has adopted this strategy by emphasizing sporting uses and hunting as with matches and the Remington hunting oriented ARs.

I opine that we own them as they are not just sporting or hunting weapons and they are weapons to defend ourselves and defend against tyranny.

Thus, I don't get bent out of shape by the language evolution.

I do get annoyed when idiots don't understand the AWB. Some idiot on the tube yesterday said that when it was in force you couldn't buy a AR as (note: this is not discussing the incident but the law). That's not true. He also said studies showed the AWB reduced crime. That's not true either.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
An assault rifle is a scary evil thing that boost TV ratings and newspaper sales. Much more dramatic than semiautomatic rifle. As I understand "gunman" is also a journalist invented term.
 
the AR-15 and its variants is a semi-auto rifle. period.

the M-16, due to it's selective fire ability, is the only assault weapon produced here. the army does not call it that though.
 
The technical definition of "assault rifle" is a compact fully automatic rifle firing modest to light recoiling ammnition that allows it to be somewhat controllable in use. Chambering for any so-called "high caliber" ammunition would defeat it's purpose as a close range full auto weapon. Whether or not an assault rifle can also function as a semi-auto isn't an issue. Nor that it be black.
 
Meaning of "Sturm" and "Gewehr" in German

Just a friendly fyi....in German, the literal translation of "Sturm" is the English word "storm" but in the sense of "storming" or " assaulting". So whoever came up with the phrase "assault rifle " back in the day got the colloquial German correct. Also "Gewehr" can be translated as weapon, for what it's worth.
 
The anti-gunners love to out evil-sounding labels on things they want to ban:

*Assault rifles (incorrect label for non full-auto rifles)
*Assault pistols (no such thing)
*Assault shotguns (no such thing)

Eventually we will be down to "Assault baseball bats" and Assault knives". And the liberal media plays along.
 
How many times must we post the same answer to the OP question??
Click to expand...

It was essentially a rhetorical question anyway. I though some others besides myself might like to vent about ignorance and misinformation in the media.


So if an assault rifle is used in a defense, is it still an assault rifle ? ;)


the AR-15 and its variants is a semi-auto rifle. period.
Click to expand...
I believe the AR-15 rifles built for the Air Force circa 1960 were selective fire. This was before the modified version of the rifle that became the M-16 was adopted by all the services. I have been wrong about other things though.
 
Last edited:
This is not a smart-@$$ question, I really do not know the answer. If the "AR" in AR-15 doesn't stand for "assault rifle" what does it stand for? I always assumed that was the case.

Edit: nevermind, I looked it up. Armalite. I had heard that before just forgot.

Sent From My Galaxy S 4g Using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
Alas, the media, both left and right, does know what it means and you, too, know exactly what they mean. There's no point being in denial. Assault rifle, just like a lot of other words both in and out of a firearms context are hot button words. Some have no technical definition except to the members of the American Academy of Firearms terms, whose function is to prevent language from being tainted and poluted by unapproved words.

Here are some other terms that produce the same controversy.

Saturday night special.
Cop-killer bullets.
Hair trigger. And even
Switchblade.

Some respectable writers on firearms subjects use this method.
"Special freak load," meaning an especially powerful cartridge.
"Super-accurate," meaning, I assume, super accurate, referring to the .38 Special.
And there's that useful all-purpose word to be used as desired, "crude."
 
If the "AR" in AR-15 doesn't stand for "assault rifle" what does it stand for?
Click to expand...

Armalite Corp.

ArmaLite is the name of a small arms engineering facility founded in the early 1950s, and once associated with the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation. ArmaLite was formally incorporated as a subdivision of Fairchild on October 1, 1954. ArmaLite was responsible for small arm designs that evolved into many of the infantry weapons in service worldwide today, including the M16 assault rifles and the M4 carbine.[1] The original ArmaLite severed relations with Fairchild in 1962, and ceased all operations in the early 1980s
Click to expand...
 
Hitler used the name and termed it as such (he was fond of naming things)

The military has had its definitions but even at that the M4 and the M2 Carbine was never considered a assault rifle it was a Carbine just like the K98 was. Leave it to our government to screw things up. The Germans used the term as such and they were the only ones that I know of that did.

Everything else was a add on of verbal technicality due to its militaristic look. If the gun looked like it belonged to the military then the feds would term it as such. Mainly liberals, to them if it looked frightening then it had to be bad.

Everything from a a detachable magazine to a bayonet lug down to the flash hider. (according to them by the definition of law they created not termed as such by functionality) Those who created these criteria knew nothing of the functionality of the parts. They only termed it as such because of its physical appearance.
 
So when is a bayonet lug not a bayonet lug and when is a detachable magazine not a detachable magazine?

The original name of the original assault rifle was MP44, which stood for machine pistol (in English). Hitler was sort of old school and conservative in things military, mostly, and the military supposedly renamed it so it would sound better to him. It was very much a German army thing.

At the time, the German army had a very aggressive military posture, in a manner of speaking. I don't know who first came up with the expression blitzkrieg, or lightening war, but that says it all. Also, the word "sturm" was sort of a buzzword of the day, although it originated in WWI with the expression "storm troops." It carried over into WWII with the line of assault guns, which were armored fighting vehicles. They were initially meant to accompany assaulting infantry and were literally named assault artillery. If the US Army had had similiar equipment, they would have been called "gun motor carraiges," which frankly doesn't sound so aggressive.
 
In the early 70's, the term assault rifle on class 3 forms was only applied to the BAR. There was a discussion about how this term came about for that application back then. The reasoning was that machine guns were heavy and usually mounted for ground fire. Mobility was not that easy while firing the weapon.

The BAR fired the same round as the mgs. With AP ammo, the BAR could move and fire fairly well. Look at the BAR belt that had the metal cup on the side with extra mags on the other. When properly strapped, the BAR was very easy to control and direct fire. Thus the idea of advancing while firing on a position, building or vehicle. Plus it is a selective fire weapon.

Think about the killing of Bonnie and Clyde. The BARs had the mobility against a moving target that could punch through the vehicle as well as kill the two. It is well known that the Thompsons would just splat aginst the metal and glass.

The BAR is a great weapon. It is just to heavy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top