CT School Shooting

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by BigFish

While I agree that assault weapons have no place in the public's hands and should be banned......

Since gun control has been a major topic of the past 24 hours, I would like to clarify one thing... "assault weapon" is an arbitrary term created by politicians who drafted an impotent law that would not prevent or reduce the damage done in any of the recent atrocities. The media incorrectly dubs any long gun with a synthetic stock as an assault weapon.

In Massachusetts, say I own an AR-15 (btw, the "AR" in AR-15 stands for "ArmaLite" the original manufacturer, not "Assault Rifle" as the media frequently misinforms the public). If my AR-15 has a bayonet lug and a collapsible stock, it's considered an assault weapon. If you remove the bayonet lug, it's no longer an assault weapon. If I remove the bayonet lug and collapsible stock and then put a grenade launcher on it (yes, a grenade launcher), it's perfectly legal and does not fall under the 'assault weapon' definition. People throw around the term "assault weapon" without actually knowing what the term means mostly because the media has completely muddied the waters as to what the term actually means.

The following link is an infographic that very clearly explains terms like assault weapon and assault rifle and when something is does not fall within that category.
http://i.imgur.com/5SZ8x.jpg

Please, please keep in mind that I mean no disrespect and there's no intent to be demeaning. There is a ton of misinformation crafted by the media and my hope is that we can have a meaningful conversation if people have clarity as to what arbitrary political terms like "assault weapon" actually mean.