Assault is a behavior

...not a device.

I may get one of these:

or these:

or these:

or these:

Or all FOUR! And/but I'll spend less than $2000 on each

But I still will not own an assault rifle.

I will own a magazine fed semi-automatic rifle with military styling. Functionally no different than either of these hunting rifles:

Both nice hunting rifles (a Remington and a Browning) fires the same diameter bullets as the other 'scary' rifles, carries as many bullets with an after-market magazine, fires those same bullets just as fast, semi-automatic. Cosmetically they are different. Their styling is different. If you have one Dodge Aries K-Car painted white, and one painted candy apple red with yellow flames on the hood, a fat exhaust pipe, and a spoiler on the back you have... 2 K-Cars. Not a grandma car and a drag-racer.

There is an assault rifle. It was invented by the German in WWII, the Soviets made and use a version, and so does the US Army. They are fully automatic firearm, or can be, if the shooter desires. They fire multiple bullets with each pull of the trigger. They are machine guns of a sort. Guess what they look like? Yup, their military styling matches the military-looking guns pictured here.

If you can't tell the difference, or at least recognize in your head that there CAN be, maybe you need to either educate yourself so you know what you are talking about, or stop being facetious or deceitful and underhanded, conflating the two types as if they are one and the same. The dishonest types want to ban private ownership of ALL guns pictured above, and then some. Ban assault weapons? They have been effectively banned since the 1930s. You can't make illegal possession 'illegaller.' Unless you have designs on more than just machine guns.

When they DID have a ban on military styled weapons in the 1990s they couldn't write the law like they wanted: "make a ban on scary-looking guns." They had to be specific on makes and models, or features on models. So weapons that LOOKED exactly like the scary looking weapons featured, but with a few less features, like no bayonet lug, sold like hot cakes to a populace worried the government was going a bit too far.

What they SHOULD do is make it illegal to shoot and kill someone for nefarious reason, or a lesser charge if you shoot and wound someone. Then people can have any kind guns they want and just be legally prohibited from shooting someone except to defend yourself of others.

Oh wait. Murder and Assault with a Deadly Weapon are already illegal.

But Gun Control is not about guns. It's about control.

Who know, maybe the Heller case will come down right and eliminate any confusion about what the 2nd Amendment is about.

I need to stop posting about the 2nd. Not because it isn't a worthy cause, but because I need to get to range and shoot some more. Then blog about that. That or try to blog positive thoughts about the 2nd and not combative case arguments. Happy stories.

Anyway. What to call the rifles above if you are going to drop the disengenuous 'assalt rifle' moniker? MBtGE calls a .223 a Light Rig, and a .308 a Heavy Rig. I prefer: Magazine-Fed, Medium-Capacity, Semi-Automatic, Utility Rifle. Utility Rifle for short. I'd hunt with mine, target shoot, plink, varmint and pest control, and defend myself. That's pretty utility. And I do that with the Garand now, pretty much.

Oh and if it was belt fed or had a drum magazine that carried 50+, THAT would be high-capacity. Those little 5 round mags that disappear into the mag well are low-cap.