I stumbled across this the other day. A few years back DHS issued a notice for bids on “personal defenive wepaons” for their staff/agents.
They bought 7,000 AR’s.
Can someone explain for us why when an AR is in the hands of police or federal agents it is deemed a “Personal Defensive Weapon” but in the hands of law abiding civilians it’s demonized as the dreaded “Assault Weapon”?
Pretty funny since it is LEO’s and Federal Agents that routinely use them on “assaults” where as for the public they are almost never used in such a manner.
Every weapon could be considered an “assault” weapon in that are designed to assault someone (or something) else (assault knife, assault pistol, assault pepper-spray, assault tactical pen, etc etc).
I think the main delineator used by most folks with a bit of common sense (which excludes a significant number of gun control advocates) is the difference between an “assault rifle” and a “sporting rifle” is the “giggle switch” (third selector option to fully automatic). Which makes me wonder if the “personal defense weapons” purchased by the agency were all semi-auto only
But at the end of the day it doesn’t matter…an “assault weapon” can be used defensively for your person therefore all assault weapons are by definition are “personal defensive weapons.”
Now, where do I sign up to go get my fully automatic “personal defensive weapon?”
I wish that were true. What I see is that the uneducated public has been taught to believe that any semi auto that looks scare is a dreaded, “Assault Weapon” and in their minds at least is functionally no different than the select fire weapons issued to police and military.
They have also been fed a steady diet of absolutely false propaganda making them believe that those “assault weapons” actually are “weapons of war” and that anyone who has or wants one is one step away from a school or shopping center massacre as soon as they get it in their hands.
Coaching 4H, we make it a point NOT to call any firearm a weapon. Firearm, gun, or pistol/rifle/shotgun. Literally anything can become a weapon, if used to assault someone. With my friends, I keep it lighthearted “This is my BOOMSTICK.” No, I don’t call them boomsticks with the young’uns.
