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View Full Version : Social Experiment: What is an Assault Weapon?



zero7one
28 February 2013, 09:06
I was at the grocery store this morning and as I was checking out, with gun magazine included, I was asked by my regular check-out-lady what my opinion was on "the whole gun control thing". Bear in mind that this particular lady knows that I am a cop and she is truly a sweet older lady.

I informed her of my opinion and asked her of hers. She said that she fully supports guns and gun ownership, but she agreed that "Assault Weapons" should be banned. I asked her what she defined an "Assault Weapon" as. Her reply was; "An AK-47". I went on to educate her on what a true "Assault Weapon" was and that an AK-47 alone was not one, since there were many different variations to include semi-automatic versions that were no more dangerous than a hunting rifle. She seemed shocked when I was informing her of this and not realizing that she had been misinformed. Of course the only gun related information that she, as a normal law-abiding sheep-like citizen, receives is from the news. We all know that the media is not always our best friend, has their own political agenda, and will skew the news to their liking.

Here is my request in the form of a social experiment:

In the course of a normal conversation with someone (stranger or not) bring up gun control, try to get what their take on it is, and ask them what their definition of an "Assault Weapon" is. If you would like to kindly educate them, do so, but do it in a professional manner. Sometimes a persons knowledge, or lack of knowledge, is just plain ignorance, not stupidity. If you can have a short conversation with just one person and have them be educated for just on gun related term, we are doing our nation a service in the right direction.

After you have this conversation, come back here and post your findings. I'm interested in seeing what the general consensus of non-gun people will be.

Jerry R
28 February 2013, 13:02
Will be interested to see posted results.

As suggested above, if you choose to enlighten someone you might mention the fact that the "AR" in AR-15 does not stand for "Assault Rifle" -- it refers to Armalite, the original designer of the AR-10 and AR-15 platforms. That really surprises a lot of people, even "long time shooters". The non-shooters, and newbies I teach, almost universally think that anything that remotely looks like something they have seen a military person (from any country) carrying is an assault rifle. When you describe current hunting rifles that are semi-automatic, magazine-fed firearms use the same ammunition, and frequently have magazine capacity greater than 10 cartridges --- sometimes you can see the little light come on. "Then what is the difference?" "Appearance only", and I try to turn the discussion to the National Firearms Act to explain that firearms that meet the true definition of assault rifle have already been licensed (taxed) and federally regulated for decades; along with numerous other "devices". Depending on the person I am talking to, sometimes I will bring up the Air Rifle that Lewis and Clark took with them on their famous expedition. A 46 caliber ball rifle using compressed air. Would zip through a wooden plank at 100 yards, and had a 20 round "magazine" so it could fire that many rounds before reloading. When I say it would probably be on the proposed ban list, they smile for a minute, then see the ridiculous nature of the legislation. If you are interested, I put a link to the Wiki page for that rifle below. It claims to be the first repeating rifle ever used in military service (that alone may qualify it as an assault rifle).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girandoni_Air_Rifle

Koshinn
1 March 2013, 01:20
I've had this conversation with about 6 open minded Dem/Libs who do not shoot and have probably never shot a gun outside of video games. Upon educating them in a friendly and non condescending manner, they actually agreed that "assault weapon" is a retarded term.

It helped that I happened to have a moe stock, a moe pistol grip, an a2 fh, and a predator shoulder cannon on hand to use as props to show what makes a rifle into an assault weapon.

Most of their definitions of assault weapon was fully automatic high powered rifle. When I told them that they are actually semi automatic fairly low powered rifles, then used props like the furniture mentioned as well as various bullets and shotgun shells, it was very effective. Then I explained where the definition came from and how it came to be. They usually come to the conclusion on their own that the difference is cosmetics. My finishing move is to finally throw statistics out that rifles are a tiny portion of gun violence, and they have more standing to be protected than pistols do by the 2a.

MistWolf
28 June 2013, 20:15
Actually, the proper term for a select fire rifle utilizing an intermediate powered rifle caliber is "Assault Rifle". The term "assault weapon" came about when the SPAS 12 and similar types of shotguns started to become popular. But the statists seized the terms "Assault Rifle" and "Assault Weapon" and made them as derogatory as "Saturday Night N****r Town Special". In California, the hopolophobes even went so far as to try to label the S&W 500 Magnum revolver as an "assault weapon" and even as a "weapon of mass destruction".

I have tried explaining this to several follks that have been sucked in by the statist propaganda. Some just bleat back "But why do you need such a weapon?"

I have changed the minds of a few. Usually when I can get them out to shoot

fnbrowning
15 September 2013, 14:07
Actually, the proper term for a select fire rifle utilizing an intermediate powered rifle caliber is "Assault Rifle". The term "assault weapon" came about when the SPAS 12 and similar types of shotguns started to become popular. But the statists seized the terms "Assault Rifle" and "Assault Weapon" and made them as derogatory as "Saturday Night N****r Town Special". In California, the hopolophobes even went so far as to try to label the S&W 500 Magnum revolver as an "assault weapon" and even as a "weapon of mass destruction".

I have tried explaining this to several follks that have been sucked in by the statist propaganda. Some just bleat back "But why do you need such a weapon?"

I have changed the minds of a few. Usually when I can get them out to shoot

I have before me here a Guns and Ammo publication with a copyright date of 1982. It is titled" Assault Rifles" and is authored by Art Blat, Field Editor, Guns & Ammo. The first article starts out with "What is an Assault Rifle," and subsequent sections cover the Armalite AR-10, 180; Beretta Model 59.62, Colt AR-15, FN-LAR, Ruger Mini-14, Springfield M14, among others. I quote form page 9. "Assault rifles are purchased for a variety of reasons. Many but them for the express purpose of gun collecting and for theses military buffs, they're the ultimate addition. Others buy and shoot them simply because they're a lot of fun."

While some may denigrate or put down the current firearms publishing industry in the Internet age, decades ago, Guns & Ammo was one of several highly respected magazines. That is why I keep this magazine as a historical reference on the rifles, and also as a piece of a body of proof that the firearms industry, and shooters themselves, started calling these rifles by the name "Assault Rifle" many decades ago. WE the shooters and collectors have put the definition on the rifles for a long time running

TopHat
15 September 2013, 17:24
Wikipedia (I know....I know) actually has a decent write up on the term "Assault Weapon" which, in my reading of the article, seems to have a rather pro-gun rights tone.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_weapon

Sak007
16 September 2013, 22:04
This http://pics.gunbroker.com/GB/362310000/362310928/pix537882053.jpg

rob_s
17 September 2013, 03:22
Living, as we do, in the age of Idiocracy, trying to change someone's mind or re-define their terminology is just not going to happen and is an exercise in futility. And I'm not sure it really matters what term they use. I've been going out of my way to use terms like "clip" and "assault rifle" and *gasp* even "weak hand"!