[leesalminen]

My mother believed for the majority of her adult life that “semi-automatic” meant “fully automatic”, as in “squeeze once, all the bullets come out”. It’s incredible that people with little to no knowledge of the mechanics of guns want to regulate exactly that.

[seneca]

Indeed, and that's exactly why it is used that way. It's an intentional weasle-word used by gun control advocates to scare observers.