Assault weapon is a slogan used by liars to manipulate fools. Based on usage, what it refers to is 20th Century arms (or more accurately, post-19th Century arms), because laws against so-called assault weapons outlaw arms, as opposed to so-called sporting guns, and only arms that are characteristic of post 19th Century designs; pre-20th Century arms remain legal (for now anyway); these include bolt and lever action, single shot, revolvers, and of course the famous Joe Biden double barrel. If the true name was used and the truth was told, there would be little public support for these laws, except among the most heavily-indoctrinated liberal cattle.
What the sporting use concept says is that there is some kind of vague right or privilege or something to have guns, but only if their purpose is trivial, since sport by definition is something done just for fun. So there is some privilege to have dangerous toys, but there is no right to have the means to defend yourself, your family, your community, and your country (unless you work for the government).
This is an absurd concept, but it is widely used in the selling of these laws, and one of the criteria being used to distinguish between what are legal guns and what are illegal “assault weapons” is the guns’ status as arms instead of toys. This is an especially egregious assault on the right to keep and bear arms, since it is arms that are specifically referred to in the 2nd Amendment, while being arms is one of the reasons for them being outlawed.
The concept can be stated succinctly like this: there is a right to keep and bear arms, but only as long as what you keep and bear are not arms. A only if not A. This is a logical impossibility. It might be the stupidest argument ever presented in human history. Its widespread acceptance among liberal cattle shows the power of the liberal propaganda machines.
God help us if this kind of absurdity can override the Constitution.