New term for assault weapon

[WarHawk-AVG]

I am growing sick and tired of the ignorant media slathering any rifle that even resembles the "evil black rifle" as an assault weapon

I have decide the ONLY term I will accept from those pinheads from this day forward is "semi-automatic combat rifle"

If they call it anything but that they officially earn the "booger eating moron" award

[the reason I call it that is because you really can't effectively hunt with a WASR or SKS or AR under "normal" conditions, yes you can hunt with them..but its like using a ferrari to commute to work in rush hour...its possible..but not very efficient]

Discuss

[Lumberjack98]

I predict that you will be handing out a lot of awards.

[Mike1951]

You might also be receiving a few "Jim Zumbo" awards.

[G.A. Heath]

I like the terms sport rifle, utility rifle, or just to annoy the enviromentalist I really like the term "Sport Utility Rifle"...

I plan to buy a SUR in the next month or so. :)

[longtooth]

It is brown but I effectively hunt w/ my Springfield M1A. That w/ the battle sites too. Just have to quit before plumb dark.

[Skiprr]

I like the terms sport rifle, utility rifle, or just to annoy the enviromentalist I really like the term "Sport Utility Rifle"...

I plan to buy a SUR in the next month or so. :)

Yeppers. It's been opined before, and I believe you're absolutely correct:

Sport Utility Rifle

[KBCraig]

I prefer:

Rifle

No need for adjectives.

[Lindy]

The phrase "ignorant media" is redundant.

Getting mad at the mainstream media is like getting mad at the bad drivers in Houston, i.e., it's great if you like being mad a lot, but it otherwise doesn't accomplish anything.

For the most part, I ignore the stupid parts of what little I do read in the "media" - the only "newspaper" I read is "The Economist".

If one wants to have any kind of mental peace, there's a lot associated with American life in this millenium that one must choose to ignore.

I salute those like Charles Cotton and others who chose to do battle with nitwits on my behalf.

I am as busy as I care to be teaching firearm skills to young men and women who are going in harm's way in the defense of freedom, and that leaves me with precious little time or energy to deal with the morons who are natives.

I moved out of Houston, too.

[jimlongley]

I have decide the ONLY term I will accept from those pinheads from this day forward is "semi-automatic combat rifle"

Discuss

Only one little problem - the term "combat rifle" would appear to be little different from "battle rifle" which is already well defined, as in M1 Garand - a full power semi-automatic rifle.

The term "assault rifle" was coined to describe medium power selective fire weapons, as opposed to sub-machine guns which are pistol caliber weapons.

We already have a well defined heirarchy, no need to add to the confusion as the media and politicians insist use the wrong terms, just insist on them using the right terms, such as "semi-automatic civilian rifle" or "small game hunting and plinking gun" and such.

Of course such terminology will lack the pejorative value they seek, so . . .

[Lodge2004]

Although the press loves to use "assault weapon" in their articles, in many cases they get that term directly from those on the scene.

The sequence of events seems to be...

• Chief of Police uses term in press conference.
  Reporters print in their articles.
  Politicians and advocacy groups use quotes to support their claims.

When not giving a direct quote, the press normally gets all confused and just prints nonsensical language. An article this week on the Omaha shooter said he used a "AK47 shooting SKS 7.66mm ammunition" That was shortened in later articles to "assault weapon" after the Chief of Police gave the "correct" word for them to quote.

[yerasimos]

Semiautomatic rifle works for me. It provides some specificity (ie, it is not a bolt-action or lever action rifle), without getting pejorative, like Jim points out. Otherwise, I would choose to go with what Kevin said and just call it a rifle, no adjective needed.

Jeff Cooper called them carbines, IIRC, on account of their reduced-power cartridges, reduced dimensions and weight and select-fire capability; the select-fire feature is pretty rare in private ownership, but I do not believe its omission detracts from its utility.

[Photoman]

Jeff Cooper called them carbines, IIRC, on account of their reduced-power cartridges, reduced dimensions and weight and select-fire capability; the select-fire feature is pretty rare in private ownership, but I do not believe its omission detracts from its utility.

If I remember right, the "K" in SKS is for carbine.

[lawrnk]

Some bartender at TGI Fridays was talking about the Omaha shooting at lunch today. He knows I am a collector and asks why in the world anyone needs a "automatic" gun. I explained;

1. 99.99% percent of guns out there for sale are not full auto
2. Explain the difference between automatic AK's, and the clones
3. State that most reports are saying the shooter had a SKS with a modified magazine
4. It requires a special stamp, 300 dollar fee or so, plus a extenstive criminal background check.
5. Anything decent in full auto starts at about 10K or so, easily reaching 40k for some models (he thought they were 200 bucks or so @ EZ pawn)
6. I do not need a TV, or Seadoo, but I enjoying having them for entertainment.
7. There are around 80,000,000 AK and AK clones out there. Throw in SKS and I bet that tops 100,000,000

[DFWCHLer]

I am growing sick and tired of the ignorant media slathering any rifle that even resembles the "evil black rifle" as an assault weapon

I have decide the ONLY term I will accept from those pinheads from this day forward is "semi-automatic combat rifle"

I believe this can best be summed up with an old adage, sanitized for the board:

Hope in one hand... do something else in the other. See which one fills up first.

[drinks]

I hate the term, "semi-auto", the black guns are "selfloading", so are the handguns.