To return to the actual subject of this thread, am I right in assuming that an "assault weapon" is a military weapon or near variation on it? As stated many times before I'm against allowing the civilian population to own guns except for competitive and hunting purposes (when registered use would be allowed) in this country HOWEVER I do recognise that the situation in the USA is different. For generations the general population has been allowed to own guns for other purposes and there is obviously no going back on that but why is there a need for them to own military style weapons now?