What makes a firearm an assault rifle

What makes a firearm an assault weapon?

The person carrying it and how they decide to use (or mis-use) it. The same thing that makes a baseball bat or a pitchfork an assault weapon.
 
A stainless steel 1911 with seven round magazines, 3-dot sights, and rosewood grips is a handgun.

A black 1911 with eight round magazines, VZ textured grips, threaded barrel, night sights, ambi safety, and surefire light is an automatic assault weapon. JUST LIKE THE SOLDIERS HAVE!!!1one
 
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That would be a machine gun. Under US law.
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And that is the funny thing about U.S. law, specifically the NFA, it was written and enacted a good eight years before the concept of an assualt rifle was dreamed up, atleast the current definition of firing an intermediate power cartridge.
 
And that is the funny thing about U.S. law, specifically the NFA, it was written and enacted a good eight years before the concept of an assualt rifle was dreamed up, atleast the current definition of firing an intermediate power cartridge.
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Yep!

The NFA cares nothing for the power level of the round fired (until you get to "destructive devices"). If it goes full auto (including only burst fire) then it is a machine gun. Doesn't matter if we class it as a submachine gun, assault rifle, belt fed, light, medium, or heavy, all the NFA sees is a machine gun. They don't care if it is belt or box magazine fed, either.

The fact that an assault rifle has a select fire capability makes it a machine gun, and all machine gun laws apply. We use that feature, along with the intermediate power round to classify it as an assault rifle, as opposed to a light machine gun or submachinegun.

Let's say you have a pickup truck. There are certain features that make it a pickup truck. And its legally registered as a pickup truck.

Chrome wheels, extended mirrors, brush guards and roll bars dont' make it a pickup truck. 4WD doesn't make it a pickup truck. But they are features a lot of pickup trucks have.

Now, tell me you would be happy with an extra tax/special registration because your truck had foglights AND custom wheels. (combination of "evil" features) and if you didn't comply you would be breaking the law.
 
Assault Rifle?

I remember a Colt advertisement that had a photo of an M-16 and an AR-15 "sporting rifle" side by side. The caption read "Which is which? Even our experts can't tell the difference without a closer look". Not all are used in an assault on full auto. If you're not a designated AR man, yours is supposed to be on semi-auto. The confusion is understandable.
 
Try explaining to a liberal that the AR in AR-15 doesn't stand for assault rifle and see how far you get. Dang you armalite!;)
 
In exasperation one day, I posted that the "AR" in AR-15, AR-10, AR-180 doesn't stand for either or assualt rifle or automatic rifle. That it, indeed, stand for Armalite Rifle on Twitter. I was pleasently surprised at the positive reaction it generated.

Ony of my more anti-gun Fraternity Brothers was amazed at that factoid.

Didn't change his mind of 30-rdn mags, but atleast got him thinking about the rifle itself.
 
You have lost the fight, when you concede to your opponent, the right to define the issue. Letting the anti gun left, and the propaganda ministry, er, main stream media, define what a gun is or is not, is costing us the Second Amendment.
 
I might be going against the fold but I think we have the right to have guns called assault rifles. Even the ones that most of you think really are assault rifles.

I don't buy into calling the modern sporting rifles or tools or whatever.

I have said several times, you won't make them look nice to people by playing name games.

There is a point to point out that semis aren't full auto but after that - AR's etc. are deadly and that's why we have the right to own them. Not because they are for hunting or competition.
 
My wife and I were watching the Antique Road Show on PBS. A young couple had a Jap rifle that belonged to her father, a WWII war trophy. She referred to it as a Japanese assault rifle and that is how they listed it with the price. It was a beauty with the bayonet and all.
 
I don't oppose calling select fire military weapons firing an intermediate caliber round an assault rifle, but I oppose that moniker hung on rifles like my Mini-14 or WASR- AK clone, simply because they are not assualt rifles.

Don't like the term assault weapons niether, mainly because it is made up.
 
All terms are made up - language is a social construction. My point is making the guns sound nice isn't that useful and negates the constitutional reason for having them.
 
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I'm trying to understand the concept of an assault weapon. I get why selective fire would be a concern, and I get the idea behind how large capacity magazines could be a concern, but why is a flash suppressor, a pistol grip, or a folding stock part of the equation? I don't mean politically, I mean what is the actual deployment of these that can be worrisome?
 
Because these people are stupid and think a Barrel Shroud is harmful. When you could have a wooden cylinder around the barrel and its labeled as an assault weapon because it is a "barrel shroud," then you know that you can't argue with these damn people.

I also agree with Glenn. Just because they used "double speak" to redefine assault weapons, we shouldn't used doublespeak to redefine assault rifles.
 
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Okay, I don't know what a barrel shroud is.

What I want to learn is, what does a flash suppressor do that some would consider it an "assault" part. Why is a pistol grip put it in that category (isn't it just an alternate, in case you can't put the stock against your shoulder)? And what is is about a folding stock, which seems convenient, something that would make it "assault" (leaving aside the whole 'assault' right or wrong debate).

Like I said, I understand the select fire switch causing alarm, but what's specifically so threatening about these other features? They sound harmless.
 
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