assault rifle...or not?

I learned a few things this week. I have my great niece, a firearms enthusiast, to thank for the impetus to look this stuff up. Many of the victims of mass shootings have been killed or injured by AR-15s, an assault weapon often called an "assault rifle". It's not. The term “assault weapon” is a loosely defined term for a semiautomatic civilian firearm that has the appearance—but not the function—of a fully automatic military firearm. The Russian-made Kalashnikov or AK-47 is actually an assault rifle, the AR-15 is just a rifle that sort of looks like an AK-47.
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The military has never used the AR-15. It is not a military weapon, it is merely a long-gun version of a semi automatic rifle or pistol - a hunting rifle or a Glock. For a weapon to be a military spec assault rifle, it must have the ability to shoot fully-automatic, or have some form of burst feature. 

The military term,  “assault rifle,” refers to a medium-caliber, shoulder-fired rifle that allows the shooter to select between semiautomatic mode (the gun fires one bullet per pull of the trigger), a three-shot-burst mode (the gun fires three bullets per pull of the trigger), or a fully automatic mode (the gun continues to fire bullet after bullet as long as the trigger is depressed.) An AR-15 can only fire one round with each trigger pull. It cannot fire a burst of rounds at one trigger press. It is an "assault weapon"  not an assault rifle.

The 1994 U.S. “Federal Assault Weapons Ban,” which expired in 2004, defined an “assault weapon” as semiautomatic, that can accept a detachable magazine, and had at least two military-style features such as a folding or telescoping stock, a pistol grip, a bayonet mount, a flash suppressor ("silencer"), or a threaded barrel designed to accept a flash suppressor. 

While I agree with the general intent of the above, I have to say that neither Rep. Crow nor anyone who comes back from Afghanistan brings their military-issued assault rifle home with them. And a civilian firearms buyer cannot buy a "gen-u-wine" "assault rifle" unless they have very deep pockets and find a supplier willing to sell illegal firearms. That won't change anytime soon. 

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