Term coined by Violence Policy Center head Josh Sugarmann to describe cililian semiautomatic firearms with a military or
fearsome appearance, yet no more
lethality than lesser weapons. Derived from the term "assault rifle", which means a
fully automatic, selective fire rate firearm used my military and police personnel.
"Assault 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."