“Aristotle, Aristotle, a bugger for the bottle!
Hobbes was fond of his Dram.
Rene Descarte was a drunken fart.
‘I drink, therefore I am!’” -- Monty Python.

Anyway, the term “assault rife” has been mis-used by the media for years now.

In the truest technical sense of the term, an assault rifle is:
A selective-fire, high capacity infantry weapon firing a “medium” cartridge – in other words, one smaller than those used in automatic rifles or machine guns, but more powerful than the pistol ammunition used in sub-machine guns.

Private citizens, except a very few who have difficult-to-obtain special licenses, may NOT own true assault rifles or any other fully-automatic weapon.

The term “assault rifle” was coined by Adolf Hitler. When first introduced to the StG 44, which at the time was a truly revolutionary and innovative design for an infantry weapon, Hitler for propaganda purposes christened it the “Strumgewer” – which translates to “storm” or “assault” rifle.

Now, citizens may own certain weapons that resemble true assault rifles – such as semi-automatic only versions of the AR-15 or AK-47.

Because of that, virtually any gun with a long clip magazine sticking out of it has been called an “assault rifle,” or “assault weapon.”

But it’s not how the weapon looks that truly makes it an assault rifle – it’s how it functions.