The Evolving Definition of “Assault Weapon”

Reason posted a video highlighting the stupidity of Congressional hearings that try to squash pop culture via things like rock music and video games that will harm our kids – like the 1992 version of Mortal Kombat.

I watched it with a laugh, but then I caught a key moment from a 1993 hearing where former Sen. Joe Lieberman defined assault weapon. When shown a Nintendo Super Scope, Sen. Lieberman said, “To me, that looks like a, it looks like an assault weapon of some kind.”

1993AssaultWeapon

That is what Sen. Lieberman believes a so-called assault weapon looks like. A giant tube of plastic that has no real shape was lumped in as an “assault weapon” in 1993. And don’t think that it was just commentary of an old out-of-touch man rambling to no one. This was a lawmaker looking to ban the giant tube of plastic and the games it was used with at the time.