Assault Rifle
Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:24 pm
"Assault Rifle"...I term we hear often in today's society. It is in the news, in movies, it comes up in conversation sometimes.
Many organizations have publicized different meanings of the phrase, most have at least some political motivation behind them.
My question to you is...
"What definition of 'assault rifle' do you feel is most accurate?"
Some will attempt to answer "It depends on what you use it for." This is true IF you take the phrase completely literally. Even though it is a fairly broad term and isn't the most descriptive name we all have a general idea of what counts as an assault rifle.
The modern world has many new and different designs and the line between different groups of firearms is often blurred. For example, the highly publicized Tech9, is it a submachinegun or a pistol with a unique feature? As the boundaries become less visible it is necessary to "re-map" every so often to figure out where things stand. In the olden days there weren't many "assault rifles" and those that did exist were distictly different from other weapons of the time period, it is different now.
My definition is one that I feel does justice to the original "assault rifle" and also fits modern weaponry such as the M-16 equelly well. My definition is...
A rifle that fires an "intermediate round" (between a pistol and a full power rifle) and also has fully automatic and semi-automatic firing modes. (Burst fire being optional)
The way I find this is easy if proper research and some deliberation is done.
My research leads me to believe that the term was first used in the 1940's at the peak of WWII. The phrase "Sturm Gewher", German for "Assault Rifle",is said to have been made by Hitler (although this cannot be proven) to describe a new German weapon, the MP43/44 (or MP44 as it is often known).
For those who lack in "ancient" weapons knowledge, the MP44 was developed by a team of engineers working under The Third Reich. The MP44 looks much like the well known AK-47 and my research tells me that the AK design was inspired by a captured German MP44. Now to the technical aspects, the MP44 fired a "kurtz" or "short" round developed specifically for use in the MP44. This is an intermediate round. The MP44 was also capable of two firing modes, semi-automatic and fully-automatic.
Regardless of wheather you agree with my definition or not it is still a good time to set out personal guidelines to know where you stand, no matter what side you are on it isn't good to come into a debate using the definition "They are black and look scary.". If you lack a serious answer, people won't treat you seriously.
Many organizations have publicized different meanings of the phrase, most have at least some political motivation behind them.
My question to you is...
"What definition of 'assault rifle' do you feel is most accurate?"
Some will attempt to answer "It depends on what you use it for." This is true IF you take the phrase completely literally. Even though it is a fairly broad term and isn't the most descriptive name we all have a general idea of what counts as an assault rifle.
The modern world has many new and different designs and the line between different groups of firearms is often blurred. For example, the highly publicized Tech9, is it a submachinegun or a pistol with a unique feature? As the boundaries become less visible it is necessary to "re-map" every so often to figure out where things stand. In the olden days there weren't many "assault rifles" and those that did exist were distictly different from other weapons of the time period, it is different now.
My definition is one that I feel does justice to the original "assault rifle" and also fits modern weaponry such as the M-16 equelly well. My definition is...
A rifle that fires an "intermediate round" (between a pistol and a full power rifle) and also has fully automatic and semi-automatic firing modes. (Burst fire being optional)
The way I find this is easy if proper research and some deliberation is done.
My research leads me to believe that the term was first used in the 1940's at the peak of WWII. The phrase "Sturm Gewher", German for "Assault Rifle",is said to have been made by Hitler (although this cannot be proven) to describe a new German weapon, the MP43/44 (or MP44 as it is often known).
For those who lack in "ancient" weapons knowledge, the MP44 was developed by a team of engineers working under The Third Reich. The MP44 looks much like the well known AK-47 and my research tells me that the AK design was inspired by a captured German MP44. Now to the technical aspects, the MP44 fired a "kurtz" or "short" round developed specifically for use in the MP44. This is an intermediate round. The MP44 was also capable of two firing modes, semi-automatic and fully-automatic.
Regardless of wheather you agree with my definition or not it is still a good time to set out personal guidelines to know where you stand, no matter what side you are on it isn't good to come into a debate using the definition "They are black and look scary.". If you lack a serious answer, people won't treat you seriously.
.The term "assault rifle" tends to be used as inflammatory and serves little purpose to me. I generally only hear it described as such by the news media. Perhaps it has uses in some circles, just not mine. Thank you for the lesson in origin...I have read it before. 
)