Sport Utility Vehicles, those ubiquitous SUVs, have been transformed from an extreme type of personal recreational vehicle for
an extreme type of driver into transportation for a normal, typical family. SUVs are
so commonplace on American roads and
highways that no one gives them a second
glance. Over the years, they’ve undergone
subtle changes to meet buyers’ needs and
wants, reflecting the fact that more of them
are used to take the kids to soccer practice
or go pick up some groceries than to motor down remote two-tracks or over rough
off-road terrain. And, even as they’ve become more car-like, normal cars have been
becoming more and more SUV-like. These
days, it can often be tough to tell them apart.
We still call them SUVs, but we realize that
they’re not only for off-road adventures and
we don’t assume that those driving them
are hardcore extremists.
So when a prospective gun buyer
walks into a store and looks at the tactical
rifles on display, is he or she seeing the
latest semi-autos for hunting, competition,
The same rack of
guns could look
like either.
“The weapons’ menacing looks, cou-
pled with the public’s confusion over fully
automatic machine guns versus semi-au-
tomatic assault weapons—anything that
looks like a machine gun is assumed to
be a machine gun—can only increase the
chance of public support for restrictions on
these weapons.”
He’s making the case that “menac-
ing looks” and “public confusion” can help
restrict weapons that are not assault rifles.
As the past two decades has shown, it
worked.
Anyone who knows much about guns
knows that “assault rifle” is the definition of
AWB, during the decade of the ban, and
in the years since it was allowed to sunset
in 2004, many have tried to educate oth-
ers about the differences between military
assault rifles and these so-called “assault
weapons.” These efforts have not been
completely in vain, but the general public at
large is still skittish about anything called
an assault weapon, particularly as politi-
cians, many in the media, and even some
law enforcement figures continue to inad-
vertently (or intentionally) keep the public
confused.
Assault on Definitions
Words matter. In 1988, Josh Sug-armann, founder of the Violence Policy
Center, wrote a study entitled Assault
Weapons and Accessories in America. Due
to the study’s title and content, he is often
regarded as the one who coined the term
‘assault weapon.’ Though it was used for
various things before 1988, including Gun
Digest’s ‘Book of Assault Weapons,’ it was
Sugarmann’s report that helped propel the
term into the political spotlight.
It’s hard to know, of course, but it
seems pretty clear that the term “assault
weapon” greatly helped the cause of those
looking to ban the guns they defined as
such. And this was not an accident. Sugarmann’s report includes this:
With nearly five decades of improvements dictated by military use, the AR- 15
platform has matured into the defacto tactical standard. Tactical professionals, competitors,
and shooting enthusiasts demand the accuracy and reliability that ARs such as the Daniel
Defense M4 bring to the firing line.
a fully automatic or burst-fire military weapon. Unfortunately for gun owners, the vast
majority of Americans don’t seem to know
much about guns and are easily taken in
by the similar-sounding “assault weapon,”
a term that didn’t have a specific definition
until those who would restrict legal gun
ownership made up a definition on the spot.
This definition was based mostly on menacing looks and public confusion, but it was
good enough to form the basis of the 1994
Federal Assault Weapons Ban.
During the debate leading up to the
In the days after the Virginia Tech shootings
in 2007, Carolyn McCarthy, the Democrat
Representative of New York’s 4th Congres-
sional District, appeared on MSNBC to take
advantage of the tragedy to push a new
proposed ban on “assault weapons.” During
the interview, she was asked what a barrel
shroud was. It was one of the defining char-
acteristics of the weapons she said needed
to be banned, but she repeatedly dodged
answering the question. To his credit, the
MSNBC host refused to let her off the hook
and continued to push for a definition.
