What is an Assault Weapon?

An assault weapon is any weapon that will lay down what the military calls “Suppression Fire” which they also sometimes call “Covering Fire”.  This refers to the type of shooting that is intended to make the enemy “take cover” and hide from the barrage of bullets.  It has been referred to as “Withering Fire” and its purpose is to prevent the enemy from firing back, or observing what you are doing, or even trying to get away.

This type of shooting would not effective in hunting.  There would be no food left to clean, cook or eat.  Not effective in self defense either.  Anyone breaks into your house at night and you would destroy your own house, kill your kids, your dogs and cats and  your neighbors too. If your neighbors also own assault weapons they might wake up and fire back, and other neighbors might join in and fire at each other. That would make a hell of a headline.

So I would venture that a good place to start on the definition of an Assault Weapon is ANY weapon that is capable of laying down Suppressive Fire, whether it was originally built for such action or has been subsequently modified to do so.  The fact that it can STILL fire single bullets would not modify the overriding fact it remains an assault weapon and should not be permitted in private ownership. This type of weapon should be reserved for the battlefield.