When facts are inconvenient, the anti-Second Amendment crowd has been swift and successful at just making stuff up. With the left-leaning Fake News media in tow, anti-gun zealots have many Americans believing that firearm-related deaths outpace car crash fatalities.
The term “assault rifle” qualifies as one of the gun-hating lobby’s false and misleading terms that has infected a national debate on appropriate and responsible firearm ownership. The term has an air of danger and aggressiveness that makes uniformed people afraid. That’s exactly the point.
By taking a factual look at what “would” constitute an “assault rifle,” if such a thing existed, and the reality about the firearms, it’s easy to see that anyone who believes they are a greater danger than a revolver has been thoroughly duped.
What Does “Assault Rifle” Really Mean?
Many believe the term comes from an old anti-gun New York Times’ article, and others claim gun-makers actually made up the term as a marketing scheme. Regardless of which side of the aisle coined the phrase, it at least points to a particular type of weapon.
It sounds very similar to the term “assault weapon,” which are a class of light-weight automatic weapons used by soldiers in combat. Fully-automatic rifles have been intensely regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms since before World War II, and have widely been banned from civilian use since 1986. A military assault weapon disperses rapid-fire and continuous rounds, and generally has a large-capacity magazine.
The so-called assault rifle now appears to be directed at the firearm known as the AR-15, a Remington product. The AR-15, like other semi-automatic firearms, chambers a round after one has been fired without the user needing to take action. The gun-user must then pull the trigger again and each time he/she wants to fire a round. Automatic weapons only require you to pull and hold the trigger once. And no — AR doesn’t stand for “assault rifle” — It stands for Armalite Rifle.
What the crafty anti-gun lobby has done is created a term that sounds similar to military weapons, and loosely points to a firearm that resembles them in appearance. What has been left out of the definition and explanation about “assault rifles” is that they are no different than many handguns not under political fire.
“Assault Rifles” vs Handguns
When a firearm chambers a round for you, that makes it “semi-automatic” not automatic. Many handguns on the market today function in the very same fashion.
Take the popular Glock 9mm for example. This popular conceal carry firearm has the same semi-automatic functionality as an AR-15. In this same class of semi-automatic handguns would be the iconic .44 Magnum, Beretta, Springfield, Sig Sauer and many pistols considered best for women’s self-defense.
Pistols that are not considered “semi-automatic” are mostly revolvers. The only difference is that the gun owner chambers that round while pulling the trigger instead of it already being ready to fire. In terms of expelling a round, the difference may be less than a second.
A Term Meant To Mislead…
When the anti-gun forces claim that banning so-called “assault rifles” will make society safer, the facts show that it’s just a phony and misleading term designed to scare people outside gun culture.
“Assault rifle” is marketing device aimed at taking away guns — and it’s time we stop playing into the left’s agenda by using the term ourselves.
~ Firearm Daily
