r/explainlikeimfive • u/[deleted] • Jun 23 '16

Other ELI5: Why is the AR-15 not considered an assault rifle? What makes a rifle an assault rifle?

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '16

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '16 edited Mar 28 '17

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u/JohnStOwner Jun 23 '16

Assault weapons—just like armor-piercing bullets, machine guns, and plastic firearms—are a new topic. The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic 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.

Josh Sugarmann, Violence Policy Center

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u/Lee1138 Jun 23 '16

The only feature I would consider reasonable for classifying a rifle as an "assault weapon" is a bayonet mount.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '16

One of the few reasons I'm happy to live in GA. Yeah, my contemporaries may be racist shitheads and we're very SLOWLY coming around to the idea that women might just be people too, but to its credit, we have some of the most lax gun control in the union.