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Per Wikipedia, "An assault rifle is a selective fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine" Selective fire means it has a fire mode other than semi-automatic(one trigger pull fires 1 round), such as 2 or 3 round burst, or fully automatic. The Assault Weapons Ban of 94 basically scored weapons based off of sometimes irrelevant features (e.g. pistol grips, bayonet mounts, telescoping stocks) One popular work around these days is "AR-15 pistols", which have an AR-15 style lower and upper, but instead of buffer tube assembly being placed in the stock, it sticks out the read of the weapon. Some manufacturers make "arm braces" to "attach it to your forearm" that look a lot like stocks, but aren't, because that would make this a short barreled rifle. As a cop, I had a Colt AR-15. This was not an assault rifle, as it was semi-auto only.
If someone has an m2 50 caliber machine gun, that would not be an assault rifle, as the .50 is not considered an "intermediate cartridge".
In the 90s, Colt made what appeared to be a smaller fully automatic M-16, which fired 9mm rounds. This was also not an assault rifle, because it fired pistol rounds, not considered intermediate cartridge. This weapon would be an assault carbine or a submachinegun. The media use of the term 'Assault Rifle' has been a meme among firearms owners for years. This was a good call by the AP |