Reply #40: define assault weapon. Okay, I will:

[The Straight Story]

See the U.S. Code of 2004 section on firearms.<1> Very generally speaking, a firearm is defined by these laws as an assault weapon if it has both a detachable magazine and a pistol grip, sometimes in conjunction with other features such as a folding stock or a flash suppressor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_weapon

So that scary term (assault) boils down to looks more than anything (and some hand guns and shotguns could and do fall under the term).

But hey, it sounds bad so we can blame those types of guns for crime and any one who defends them sounds like they favor 'bad' guns.

A few weeks back I put together an assault weapon with my friend - it was basically an every day type gun that looked scary. And scary looking things make people do weird things like blame them for others' actions and try to ban them.