...claiming that it is now common in the US military as well as the UK military for soldiers to refer to the M16 and the M4 as "battle rifles."
I'm sure that fellow's claim about how soldiers refer to things is correct. SOLDIERS refer to things in many ways, which are not the same as the standard definitions, or civilian use of the terms. And are not always correct, outside of military use. And then, there is also military SLANG, which is sometimes almost its own insular language....
I’m confused. I thought assault rifle was a purely political term as opposed to battle rifle which was a grouping term used by people in conversation, authors and the like to show rifles carried into battle where the gun and ammo are carried by a single person.
You are confused. Where the gun and its ammo are carried by a single person, the proper term is "individual weapons" Where the gun and its ammo require more than one person to carry and use the proper term is "Crew served weapon". By definition an assault rifle, is an individual weapon.
I have a tendency to take language very literally as in, words have specific meanings. I live by the Thesaurus but it's full of nuance, etc.
That said, if you're in a battle and you have a rifle, I suppose it's a "battle rifle." If you point a rifle at someone and threaten them with it, an assault, then I suppose that makes it an "assault rifle," and so on and so forth.
People taking things literally is always a problem for people who don't.
There are times when literal use of terms is proper, and times when it is not.
The problem with defining something only by a specific use is, that definition becomes invalid without that use.
I think you are mis-remembering "assault weapon", a term used to confuse casual observers into thinking a semi-automatic rifle is an assault rifle.
"Battle rifle" is a retronym, a term applied not at the time the items were widely used, but to distinguish them from the "assault rifle" format that now dominates as service rifles issued by almost every country.
This is correct.
I think we take terminology and grammar too seriously on forums. Does it really matter ?
it absolutely matters when the discussion is about something that matters.
Anytime one discusses technical matters, and does not use terminology the same way everyone else does, it causes problems, which can range from minor irritation to life threatening serious.
Using terms correctly ALSO matters to the general definition, because dictionaries (real, printed, and online) give definitions as "found in popular use" as well as often giving historical use definitions, and rarely give correct definitions as used in technical terminology.
And proper use of terms really matters ALOT when those terms are put into laws. LEGAL definitions are sometimes seemingly at odds with common use definitions.
Also further complicating a complex situation is the fact that in English, and some other languages, words have different meanings depending on the context in which they are used.
And then there is also the "evolutionary process" of language, which, these days seems to primarily consist of people "redefining" established terms to suit their agenda, and claiming all other definitions are wrong, or obsolete, and you are somehow a force of evil if you do not agree with them.....
And political rhetoric is some of the worst.....
The term "assault rifle" (note, "rifle" not "weapon") originated in WWII Nazi Germany. It was coined by Adolph Hitler. Assault rifle is the usual English translation of the German term "
Sturmgewehr".
After the war the firearms community essentially standardized the term "assault rifle" using the German
Sturmgewehr as the base model of the type. There were three key features used in the definition, and they were, box magazine fed, fired an "intermediate" power cartrdge, and was capable of select fire operation. "Intermediate power cartridge" was defined as more powerful than standard pistol but less powerful then standard (infantry) rifle, by WWII standards. In other words, more powerful than 9mm or .45ACP, but less powerful than 8mm Mauser (8x57), .30-06, or .303 British.
Select fire is the ability of the user to select semi auto or full auto fire.
If the weapon had all three features it was an assault rifle. If it did not, it was not an assault rifle. A rifle could have other features such as a pistol grip, or a straight line stock, or other things, but those did not define it as an assault rifle.
Assault weapon is a term created in the 90s by the news media and adopted enthusiastically by a certain political faction, codified in Federal Law in 1994, and in general use and misuse today.
And, in a small way, its our fault....
Because we corrected the media. It goes back to the Stockton mass murder in 1989. The killer used a semi auto variant of the AK 47, and then killed himself, leaving the media to focus not on him, but on the weapon he used.
They repeatedly called it an "assault rifle". Our side responded with the technically accurate explanation that since it was not select fire, it was not an assault rifle. Our goal in this was (a since proven mistaken belief) that the media would happily accept the correction and would thereafter report accurately.
They did not. They could not dispute the accuracte, factual definition of assault rifle, so they grudgingly began calling those kinds of guns "semiautomatic assault rifles". This term proved to be a very cumbersome "sound bite" and after a short time, they created the term "assault weapon".
As written into the 1994 Federal law (and several state laws at the time) the term "assault weapon" covered SEMI AUTOMATIC rifles, pistols, and shotguns, IF they had certain listed (and actually only cosmetic) features.
NO assault rifles were covered under the 1994 law, not a single one. ONLY semiauto arms that had the features on the list in the law.
Under US law, actual assault rifles, because they are select fire, are legally machine guns, and fall under the rules of the NFA 1934 gun control act.
People get easily confused (and it is widely believed that the term assault weapon was specifically chosen to confuse people) because of our natural tendency in language to shorten and misapply terms. If it is an assault weapon, and it is a rifle, people tend to think of it as an assault "rifle" and by proper definition, that is incorrect.
the term has been used and misused so much that today several dictionaries are listing the misuse as the actual definition.
There's lots more to it, of course, but this should help clear up some of the confusion and give you some points to think about.
