April 3rd, 2019
6minute read
What is an assault weapon?
comes off as a question that even lawmakers cant answer.
Like texting, tweeting, woke and hangry, the term assault weapon is a relatively recent contrivance.
All three of these firearms would be called by some “assault weapons.” But, are they?
There is an apocryphal tale claiming that Adolf Hitler first started this party.
During World War II the Nazis debuted a radically new bang out of Infantry rifle called the MP43.
Hitler himself purportedly titled the revolutionary weapon the Sturmgewehr or Storm Gun.
This fully automatic HK416, like the one believed to be used to kill Osama bin Laden, is actually an “assault rifle” in the military sense.
Allied intelligence officials supposedly mistranslated Storm Gun as Assault Rifle, and here we are.
[Be sure to read about theoriginal assault rifle, the German StG44, here.]
Assault rifle is an accepted military term today.
One of these guns would be called an “assault weapon” under misguided legal interpretations. Which one? The one at the top due to its bayonet lug.
This is a relatively lightweight man-portable weapon that is capable of fully automatic fire.
Fully automatic means the gun will sequentially shoot more than one bullet with a single squeeze of the trigger.
Hold down the trigger and it will shoot until you release the trigger or the gun runs empty.
These two semi-automatic .22 rifles function identically. However, the gun on the bottom obviously looks way scarier.
The layman would be forgiven for calling this a machinegun.
All modern military forces employ assault rifles.
An assault weapon today is basically inaccurately described as a semi-automatic firearm that looks like an assault rifle.
These two autoloading 12-gauge shotguns are essentially identical mechanically. Which one do you think would be called an “assault weapon”?
Semi-automatic means the gun fires one shot with each pull of the trigger.
Hold down that trigger, and all you are going to get is a single shot.
In the gun world, the distinction between fully automatic and semi-automatic is huge.
Both of these pistols fire identical 9mm ammunition from detachable magazines.
To the purist, an assault weapon is not even a real thing.
It is therefore all but undefinable.
However, that didnt stop the U.S. Congress from trying.
Trying to effectively regulate firearms based solely upon their appearance is a fool’s errand.
Congress tried to ban whatever they perceived to be assault weapons in the mid-1990s.
Gun defenders insisted upon a legal definition that could stand up in court.
The messy end result was the federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994.
A semi-automatic firearm like this AR-style rifle may look “scary,” but differs little from most other guns.
This convoluted piece of legislation sought to prohibit the manufacture of certain firearms based upon their appearance.
Certain combinations would arbitrarily pitch a conventional firearm into the dreaded Assault Weapon category.
This muddled bit of jurisprudence automatically expired 10 years after it was enacted.
Reputable sources agreed that the ban had no effect on crime rates.
There has nonetheless been a concerted effort to reinstate it permanently ever since.
Id walk you through the technical details, but it would invariably put you to sleep.
Private citizens in most states can technically own certain fully automatic guns.
However, they are about as rare as honest politicians in Washington and nearly as expensive.
Unlike depictions in movies, fully automatic weapons in private hands are vanishingly rare.
By contrast, semi-automatic firearms of all stripes are quite literally everywhere.
Rifles of any sort are used in a relatively small percentage of the gun crime in America.
Assault weapons, whatever they actually are, would make up a yet smaller subset.
The more useful term than assault weapon would be Modern Sporting Rifle (MSR).
MSRs might look a bit like assault rifles on the outside.
However, they are by definition semi-automatic.
MSRs are used legally for competition, recreation, and home defense from coast to coast.
Despite the relentless bigotry shown against them, MSRs remain the most popular genre of rifles in America.
Two semi-automatic firearms might have exactly the same function and capability.
However, if one looks scary and the other doesnt they can be regulated completely differently.
FAQs
The following are frequent questions we receive on assault rifles and assault weapons.
What is an assault rifle?
Modern military units commonly use assault rifles.
Law enforcement agencies occasionally use them in high risk positions such as SWAT units.
What is an assault weapon?
An assault weapon is a political term without appreciable meaning in the firearms industry.
It is not a technical classification of a firearm.
What states ban assault weapons?
The following states have assault weapon bans:
Additionally, the District of Columbia has an assault weapons ban.
Additionally, there are multiple lawsuits pending in these states seeking to overturn the laws.
Last update: October 4, 2023
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