stanc Wrote:Good speaker, but seems to be a little careless on her fact checking.
"Prior to 1989, the term 'assault weapon' did not exist... It is a political term, developed by anti-gun publicists..."
The first edition of The Gun Digest Book of Assault Weapons was published in 1986, by a pro-gun company.
This is a description of this publication:
This is the latest word on true assault weaponry in use today by international military and law enforcement organisations. The authors report on the changing mission of these weapons and then test many of them during the preparation of exclusive performance reports. Students of the world's assault weaponry will find fresh information on trends and applications, as well as discussion and evaluation of the very latest firearms: Rifles, Submachine Guns, Crew-Served Machine Guns, Combat Shotguns - plus a very educated look into the 21st century.
The term "assault weapons" in this publication seems to be a loosely used name for a conglomerate of all full auto and military firearms. In any respectable historical reference of such firearms, there are terms for their proper nomenclature. Assault weapon is not one of them. Perhaps the anti's picked up on this, "click bate term", for the purpose of demonizing them instead of selling them to the growing survivalist movement of the time. In any case, that term was in use by the gun culture, even though it is not a proper term for their description. Assault weapon can imply a superior survivalist weapon for the ignorant, gullible gun buyer or the spawn of evil for the ignorant gullible leftist who has Hoplophobia. In any case you are correct about the use of this term Stan.