A signature issue for the Violence Policy Center gun ban extremist group has for decades been their efforts to ban so-called “assault weapons.” The very term “assault weapon” may have been VPC’s most famous creation, and as far back as 1988, VPC was openly advising fellow gun ban zealots (including the mass media) to exploit public ignorance about the difference between these semi-automatic firearms and fully-automatic weapons (machine guns) used by every military in the world since the very early 20th century:

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.

In the past, the VPC was trying to look “reasonable” (not easy for a group that has openly lobbied for an outright ban on all private ownership of handguns), and knowing that a campaign to ban all semi-automatic firearms, many of which are popular even among people who might support some of VPC’s less ambitious gun ban efforts, would be a bridge too far, set their sights lower–thus “assault weapons.”

FK – They will ban our arms if they can.