Any weapon that has the words military, assault, attached to it must be banned.

[better]

46. Adrahil and Iggo are both correct

Congress did pass a law labeling them, and because of how poor a job they did defining assault weapons, it was much easier than it needed to have been for the NRA to get otherwise sensible and responsible gun owners to agree that the law was overreaching. That bad job of defining what they were attempting to regulate is part of why we are where we are.



This pic illustrates what I'm talking about quite well. Those are both the same rifle, both with 10 round magazines. They're also one of the least powerful calibers available, good for target practice and pest control, and not much else. But the one on the bottom, as defined by Congress, is an assault weapon, because of that hole in the stock for your thumb to rest in. And just to be clear, I do mean exactly the same rifle. Remove a couple screws and replace one piece of wood with a different piece of wood, and it becomes an assault rifle. That really is how the language of the AWB works. It's also why they could change the shape of the grip on an actual AR-15 and make it not be classified as an assault rifle, despite still being the same weapon.

Now, I suspect that neither of these rifles are what you mean when you talk about military assault rifles, but that just further illustrates the importance of defining "assault rifles" well, which thus far Congress has failed to do. And that's at least some part of why the attempt to revive the AWB in the wake of Sandy Hook failed.

But one thing it is very important to understand is that banning weapons on the basis of appearance or design, which is what the language of the AWB did, is never going to be as effective as banning specific capabilities. And that is where Adrahil's suggestion comes into play. Ban all magazines holding more than 10 rounds, and it suddenly becomes a great deal less important what the weapon looks like, because you've changed what it can do.

Hell, I could even go for fixed mags for civilian weapons. My paper and steel targets aren't shooting back, and I'm reloading my one magazine every ten shots anyway. I don't particularly care whether it comes out of the gun or not. But trying to ban features like thumb holes that have zero impact on capability only creates unnecessary resistance to getting something actually effective done.