Why the “assault weapon” bit, anyway? I don’t know, but I’ve got some opinions.

First, from law enforcement - who last time was solidly behind this. They knew what they meant by assault weapon: weapons that were designed to work in close quarters but had good range, use high penetration loads in high capacity magazines. They were worried about gangs, especially gun running gangs, that could stand up to the SWAT teams in equal gun combat.

Second, from political perception. Assault weapons are “obviously” derived from military weapons. Unlike defense and hunting and sport (marksmanship) their original design was for killing people. When your impetus is highly visible killings, often with one of these, it becomes a fairly obvious symbol for the restriction.