What is an Assault Weapon?

I recently had to contemplate just exactly what an "Assault Weapon" is when some of the items I was selling on E-Bay resulted in a minor disciplinary action by both E-Bay and PayPal.

 

The whole world seems to be in some kind of tizzy about "Assault Weapons" and the government of California has puts words on paper to define what exactly is considered an "Assault Weapon".  Careful reading of the full definition basically classifies every single gun I own as an "Assault Weapon", including an old semi-auto .22 caliber rifle I got from my grandfather.  You can read the definition yourself at:

http://ag.ca.gov/firearms/awlist.htm

http://ag.ca.gov/firearms/awguide/awguide.php

Personally I don't see why "Assault Weapons" have been given so much attention. 

I challenge you to name one civilian incident involving "Assault Weapons" in which any body was killed other than the perpetrator. Conversely to that, I can name multiple very famous incidents where many civilians were killed by another civilian bearing non-Assault Weapons:

• Virginia Tech (2 hand guns, clips with fewer than 10 round capacity, not considered Assault Weapons), ended when the perpetrator shot himself
• Trolley Square, Utah (1 12 ga pump action shotgun, 1 handgun with fewer than 10 round capacity, not considered Assault Weapons), ended when someone carrying a concealed pistol shot the perpetrator
• Amish School (hand gun, not an Assault Weapon), ended when the perpetrator shot himself
• Columbine High School (pistols & shotguns, not Assault Weapons), ended when the perpetrators shot themselves
• The Whitfield incident, clock tower sniping (standard single shot, bolt action rifle, this could have been your grandfathers hunting rifle, not an Assault Weapon), ended when officers were able to storm the tower and shot the perpetrator
• Lee Harvey Oswald... (another standard bolt action, not an Assault Weapon)

My own personal definition of an Assault Weapon:  Any object one person picks up and uses to assault another person, is an Assault Weapon, everything else is just an object. 

 

Lets stop deceiving ourselves about what is dangerous and how to legislate safety.  The ultimate truth about weapons: The most dangerous weapon known to man is the human mind.   Everything else is just a "tool" according to the anthropological definition of "tools".  There is no legislation that can stop the human mind.  If a person has fixed their mind on a certain objective, and they intend to accomplish that objective at any cost, nothing short of death will prevent that person from accomplishing it.  If any of the people listed above had chosen some other weapon: a knife, a slingshot, or a heavy stick...they would have been no less effective at accomplishing death and misery for others.  Why?  Simply because before they ever purchased the objects used in the above attacks, they had already put the most deadly weapon into action: their mind.