There is much confusion between the terms Assault Weapon and Assault Rifle and both the gun control advocates and 2nd Amendment advocates seem to be getting this wrong. The two are very different and the two terms have very different usages. The term Assault Weapon is a Progressive term created to scare people. The term Assault Rifle is a military term used to identify a specific type of firearm.
Lets begin with the real gun… the Assault rifle. The assault rifle most commonly recognized in our nation is the M-16. It was created to provide greater firepower in a smaller/lighter package. It once had full auto capability but is now limited to burst. That is exactly what makes it an Assault Rifle, light, fairly small and burst or full auto.
The Assault Weapon is a leftist term created to confuse people. It is a term applied to semi-automatic firearms which look like Assault Rifles, i.e. AR-15. Leftists and some on the right think that AR means Assault Rifle but it doesn’t. AR is short for Armalite. It is the semi-automatic version of the M-16 designed by Eugene Stoner. Unlike the M-16 which, depending on the year made, each time you pull the trigger you either empty the magazine or fire a burst of bullets with the AR you get one bullet per trigger pull. The AR is, again, a semi-automatic civilian rifle that looks like an Assault Rifle.
This tactic is very effective because there are so many people in this country who do not know much about firearms and because the M-16 and AR-15 look virtually identical.
Can you tell the difference?
A 
B 
