Discussion: Fox News Host: 'Assault Weapon' Is A 'Made-Up Term'

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Discussion for article #227354

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This is like the argument that gun fondlers trot out whenever there’s a discussion about restricting firearm possession. They try to get you wrapped around the axle by arguing about the definition of “assault weapon” or “handgun.”

My response is a simple one. “Well, I guess if we can’t come up with a definition that’s precise enough to satisfy you, we’ll just have to get rid of all the guns. If it fires a bullet, you can’t have it.”

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The outrage! Federal agents actually want to see the records of a gun shop owner who admitted that he sold banned weapons after he got caught red handed! Next thing you know, these jack-booted thugs will arrest people charged with violent crimes!

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Sissy Boy does have a point: “Assault weapon” is a made-up term in the same way that EVERY WORD IN ANY LANGUAGE HAD TO “MADE UP” AT ONE TIME.

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If the damned thing was designed for combat, how can you call it anything else? What there is no such thing as is a knowledgeable FOX noise talking head.

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There’s really no such thing as a “fair and balanced” commentator on FOX News.

The average citizen has no need of fully or semi-automatic rifles for self-defense, nor for weapons using extended magazines. And if you need such a rifle for the purpose of hunting, well … it really doesn’t speak highly of your skill as a hunter.

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Well yah…can we all agree to start calling these poor misunderstood weapons

the

“Ugly Stick of Death”

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Actually, according to the story it was local police who came in and requested the records because it violates a State statute. There are different states who have laws that only certain weapons can be attained and owned.

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Yep, further proof of a trend I’ve been noticing for a while. Conservative talking heads are getting their talking points from conservative internet commenters (read: angry internet addicts).
I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen “What’s an assault weapon!?!?!?!” posted as a response to someone who mentions the clear, simple, honest truth that your average American has no reason to own one.

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The proper term I believe is “assault rifle”. But whatever term is used, to me what is ridiculous is how much time is given by the right-wing media to the plight of gun fetishists.

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Irony alert; Fox News is best example of made up words, along with fair and balanced.

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On the one hand, yes, a gun is a gun, capable of frequent disastrous accidents and frequent criminal uses - they should all be well-regulated. On the other hand, assault rifle is a term made-up to describe a gun with heavier fire power - there’s a place in language for descriptive terms, something lost on the droolers who watch Fox.

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I get it. You don’t really assault people with these weapons so much as murder them. Thus the proper term would be “murder weapon”. Much better.

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TPM: Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Saturday claimed that “assault weapon” is not a real term. … Joseph Palumbo, owner of the Albion Gun Shop, thought that the modified AR-15s were legal, but the guns violated the state’s SAFE Act.

So let me get this straight. The AR in AR-15 is an acronym for Assault Rifle.

And Tucker Carlson’s argument is that an Assault Rifle is not an assault weapon - because there’s no such thing as an assault weapon?

The stupidity of right-wing rhetoric and arguing style never ceases to amaze me.

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Is “assault weapon” mentioned in the Second Amendment? No.
Is “assault weapon” mentioned in the Bible? No.

Then it must be a made-up term. No other explanation makes sense.

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And “clip” vs. “magazine.” Gawd.

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If the term “TV Dinner” hadn’t been made up, Tucker wouldn’t have a trust fund.

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Actually, the AR sands for “Armalite Rifle.” Armalite was the company that design and originally manufactured the M-16.

The thing is, this is just like the idiot game they play with the words “clip” and “magazine.” Among themselves, on gun nut boards and wherever gun fondlers, militia nuts and/or wing nuts generally congregate, they’ll use those terms interchangeably, just like everyone else does. But whenever a journalist or a liberal uses the term, it’s “har har har! Silly librul doesn’t know difference between magazine and clip! Har har har! Everything silly librul has to say is disqualified by failure to understand and correctly use precise technical definition that doesn’t actually exist and is not used by real firearms experts.”

An “assault rifle” is a gas-operated rifle fed by a detachable magazine, usually holding twenty or thirty rounds, that is chambered for an “intermediate” round that is smaller and lighter than a full rifle round, such as the .30-30, but larger and more powerful than pistol ammunition. Military versions are usually capable of firing more than one round with a single trigger pull but civilian versions are usually limited to semi-automatic fire.

The term “assault weapon” is less precise. It is either a synonym for “assault rifle” or it is a reference to the 1990s law that banned a number of different semi-automatic weapons based on a set of characteristics designed to both avoid application to a number of semi-automatic weapons while also including a number of weapons, like the TEC-9, that fired pistol ammunition.

It’s the latter purely legal/political definition that gave rise to the wingnut “no such thing as an ‘assault weapon’” meme.

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Next Tucker will say that guns aren’t lethal.

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OMFG, now conservatards want to “take the assault out of” the assault weapon definition because it just doesn’t sound pretty or nice enough. What does Bow Tie Boy think those weapons do to people? Tickle them with bullets? It’s a Tickler Weapon…Well, you don’t say…Next they’ll want to take the word “weapon” away from the definition…

Its a fucking gun, assholes. Guns are Weapons, Weapons Assault People and Other Living Things.

Class over.