The “assault rifle” label liberals employ in the gun control debate was first coined by German Führer Adolf Hitler as a propaganda move to instill fear.
The gun control debate caught new winds after Omar Mateen shot 49 people to death June 12 at an Orlando gay night club. Mateen used a SIG Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle, along with a handgun, to carry out the massacre.
People calling for stricter gun control were quick to point out that Mateen had legally obtained an “assault rifle” just days before the massacre. This use of the term in relation to Mateen’s semi-automatic rifle is incorrect, but it continues to appear in the gun debate as an interchangeable term for semi-automatic weapons.
The assault rifle label originates from Nazi Germany and the “Sturmgewehr 44,” or Storm Rifle 44, which became known as the Assault Rifle 44. By naming it an “assault rifle,” Hitler wanted to instill fear in his enemies, similar to the propaganda value of weapons such as “Panzer, Tiger and Panther.”
The weapon was revolutionary because of its flexibility and performance, which quickly led to the production of similar rifles by the world’s major powers, including the Soviet AK-47. (RELATED: Medical Records Indicate Hitler had An Unusually Small Penis)
The U.S. Army defines an assault rifle as “a selective-fire rifle chambered for a cartridge of intermediate power,” according to the NRA Institute for Legal Action. “If applied to any semi-automatic firearm, regardless of its cosmetic similarity to a true assault rifle, the term is incorrect.”
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