You have no idea what an assault rifle is. It is a semi-automatic rifle with a pistol grip. Yes, so much more lethal than any other semi-automatic hunting rifle.
Don't talk out of your ass. Assault Rifle =/= Fully automatic. The civilian models are still 1 round per trigger pull. Educate yourself.
This -
And this -
Both fire the same round at the same speed. Explain to me why one is "sporting" to hunt with and the other itsn't?
To be fair, I don't think
either of those are particularly good for home-defense in the traditional "home-invasion" scenario. Shotgun and pistols are
much better.
I won't wade into the "assault rifle" debacle. I think the term is kind of silly and, at best, murky. But I will add that while I support the Second Amendment and don't like the current legal mess that we have I am not necessarily opposed to common-sense gun regulations (such as continuing to limit who can own
fully automatic weapons, and preventing convincted felons and those adjudicated as mentally ill from owning
any kind of gun). I am not super-familiar with existing laws and regulations, so perhaps such limits are already in place, but if there aren't, I don't think it would be a bad idea to impose restrictions the acquisition of
certain types of weapons by civilians outright.
For example, I don't think a GAU-17 or a GAU-8 should be readily available for purchase at your local gunstore, complete with SUV mounting kit. I'm sure that some may find this restrictive and argue that it violates the Second Amendment; we can have that debate, and I'm certainly open to being convinced otherwise. Someone may draw the line elsewhere, but I don't think that anyone will really disagree that there are at least
some line: that certain kinds of weapons should not be widely available to civilians, and some that shouldn't be available at all.
I guess there is one line that everyone (at least I
hope everyone) would agree shouldn't be crossed: civilians should not be allowed to own biological, chemical and/or nuclear weapons.