Semantics: "Tactial Rifle" vs "Assault Rifle" --a New Demonization?

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230RN

230RN

2A was "political" when it was first adopted.
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Semantics: "Tactical Rifle" vs "Assault Rifle" --a New Demonization?

I just heard this on Channel 7 News this morning. (Sunday, 30 Sep 07, 9:10 AM).

Did not catch the whole thing since I was doing something else:

Relating to some incident or another, the newscast showed an EBR while the announcer referred to it as a "Tactical Rifle" instead of an "Assault Rifle."

Is there a warning there for us?

Is this a new phenomenon?

Do we have a counter strategy/tactic?

Frankly, I'm tired of being merely reactive to this kind of stuff.
 
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^^^

Possible, but my peripheral perception was that it was in reference to a negative use.

Anyone else pick up on this?
 
I'm more worried about the press talking about 'sniper rifles', powerful rifles with telescopic sights. Sounds a lot like most people's deer rifle.
 
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I only buy tactical socks as it makes them easier to match.

Calling an item 'tactical' is already a mild slur among my friends. Usually it means something that has been produced in black to appeal to the pseaudo-military & survivalist crowd. We never confuse it with genuine tactical gear as the term as there's usually a better way of describing the item.

I can easily see 'tactical' becoming an awkward term as it hints at specialist military and paramilitary (eg SWAT) intention. A lot of people will be wary of civilians wanting tactical gear assuming it's for some paranoid and nefarious purpose. I'm thinking of the kind of people who think the second amendment means government militias and that civilians have no need of anything other than hunting rifles, if that.

I've not explained that very well but I can't think how to express it better.
 
Well I guess by definition that a "tactical" rifle most likely is not an assault rifle, however an assult (being a tactic) rifle is always tactical. I think I prefer "sport utility rifle" to either, as it better describes more common uses for the EBRs, target shooting, home protection, self defense, even hunting, a modern rifle that can perform the functions of several category of weapons. And sport utility screams too cool for a minivan.:neener:
 
The only difference between a hunting rifle and a sniper rifle is the target and the intent of the user. A scoped Center fire is made to place a single accurate shot from the muzzle to extended range, actual distance depending on the skill of the shooter. (Actually, most LE precision shots are at about 75 yds.) In Viet Nam when the command structure suddenly realized that precision shooting to long range was a necessity they picked up scoped Remington 700s from the PX- not specialized "Tactical" pieces, but deer rifles. I haven't been deer hunting since 1981. Does that mean I don't "need" my .30-06 for "sporting purposes" and therefore possess it only for nefarious use? (It doesn't have a bayonet mount, but I'm sure I could duct tape a chef's knife to the barrel.)* The mainstream Media is well aware of what they're doing and we can expect more of the same. BTW, my favored term for scary looking semi-autos is "homeland defense rifle." I'm sure you won't be seeing that in your local paper.
*This is in jest- I am not suggesting that anyone illegally attach a bayonet to any firearm or advocating the violation of any law.
 
I saw this a few weeks or a couple months back, I think it's becoming common among the manufacturers to keep the terms more accurate and more PC as well.

I think I saw the AR mfg (stag maybe?) on a mainstream media segment--they were calling it a tactical rifle as well.
 
I call them all hunting rifles which they really are because all can be used to hunt some kind of game.
I play their word game and by calling all semi auto and bolt action rilfes hunting rifles (which the majority of the ones they want to ban are anyway), I get to call the Fienstein proposed bill the hunting rifle ban bill.
When said that way it makes the ears perk up of people who are not gun savvy and were fooled by the "assault weapon" misnomer, and it makes the true Fudds pay attention (because they only care about protecting "hunting rifles").

At the very least making them pay attention to the wording, they will investigate the bill and discover the hunting rifles banned and then that leads them to question the whole intent and thought process of the AW ban in the first place......it makes them question themselves and their position.
 
Who cares?
Click to expand...
....all the people that wanted to buy a new manufacture AR15 or AK variant with a pistol grip but couldn't for ten years because aomeone called it an "assault weapon" and got it banned maybe?

Words mean a whole lot when they are bantied around in political rhetoric to the masses. Today it is a tactical rifle, tomorrow it is the "tactical rifles which the terrorists and gang members use". They first get the word in the lexicon with an implied meaning, then they run with it justy like they did with the words "assault weapons".
 
They could call it a "thingamajig" and it wouldn't matter. Every time we change the word, they catch up. The problem is not the word, but the idea. They want to ban the gun, the "assault weapon", "tactical rifle", or "thingamajig". Personally, I like the term "Assault Weapon" and think that we should keep it.
 
I'd rather hear them call it tactical. Has a less ominous connontation than assault rifle. No matter what, they're gonna stick an adverb in front of the word "rifle", so it might as well be a more mild one.
 
Whatever a particular rifle is called, that will be the next term used by the gun banners, to be turned into an "evil" connotation. "Tactical" is ripe to be misused to ban guns, because the true meaning isn't clear, and thus can be implied to about anything they want to ban. Tactical shotguns are often pump shotguns, they would love to have a reason to ban all pump shotguns. Before you know it, any gun that is black, has a flashlight, has a picitanney rail or four, or is used by the police, ever, will be part of the Tactical Weapons Ban, TWB. You probably think I'm joking, don't you? I am not! They have already tried "military style weapons", and fortunately, that one didn't stick.
 
....all the people that wanted to buy a new manufacture AR15 or AK variant with a pistol grip but couldn't for ten years because aomeone called it an "assault weapon" and got it banned maybe?

Words mean a whole lot when they are bantied around in political rhetoric to the masses. Today it is a tactical rifle, tomorrow it is the "tactical rifles which the terrorists and gang members use". They first get the word in the lexicon with an implied meaning, then they run with it justy like they did with the words "assault weapons".
Click to expand...

I guess we disagree on that. I don't see it that way.

Look, the liberals and the media will do what they do... we cannot change that.

The most important thing we can do is educate everyone we know. I couldn't care less about what the media says. We all realize that they are heavily biased towards the left. Right?
 
"I couldn't care less about what the media says."

Maybe you couldn't care less but most people pick up their "facts" and "opinions" by reading and listening to the media. We need to pay attention to what the media is saying because that's where our next battle front is at.

We have to be louder than the media which is extremely difficult since they have the public's ear.
 
It's all semantics, and you might as well not worry about it. It is the difference between a liberal and a "compassonate conservative"(heard GWB use that one). Whatever particular PC term is currently in vogue, especially among the leftists, is going to be the one used to degrade us gun lovers. This battle is almost impossible to win because the pros are continually on the defensive against the antis and their catch phrases. As soon as one is debunked, they have a fresh batch. Why worry?:banghead:
 
The problem I hope I'm not foreseeing is that the next time some bonehead shoots up a victim-disarmed place like a school or church or something, they'll link that term, "tactical rifle" to the event.

Enough of those and we won't be able to use the term "tactical" in any sense without evoking negatively-loaded terms to anything firearms-related.

Okay, so ARs and SKs and AKs and 500s and 870s are used for hunting. What would happen if every time a shooting occured, they used the term "hunting rifle" or, for that matter, "fowling piece" in the news reports?

Semantics counts.
 
Ok, I am a liberal and a leftist, but I am progunrights because I am a civil libertarian and the RKBA is a civil right.
But that has little to do with my proposal.

I suggest that if they will use whatever catch phrase or twist of ours to promote their next "evil this; evil that" rifle ban, then we change what we call it. If we make them keep trying to catch up, then all they will end up doing is to confuse the public instead of uniting the public.
It is much easier for them to get the public to focus over a long period of time on a particular phrase that they turn into something sounding malevolent, but keep changing the name and the public will think "wow, they want to ban another type of rifle!?!?! ***?" and then start to ask questions as a result.
 
Maybe you couldn't care less but most people pick up their "facts" and "opinions" by reading and listening to the media. We need to pay attention to what the media is saying because that's where our next battle front is at.

We have to be louder than the media which is extremely difficult since they have the public's ear.
Click to expand...

Well, I agree that some sheep trust the media without question. But that has been the case. This is nothing new.

I guess my point is, the media has been doing this same stuff for a while now. It is what we have to deal with, BUT all I am saying is that it doesn't matter what they say because it won't change anything... that is, if we as gun owners do our job and take the time to educate people and fight the fight.

That is all I am saying. They cannot win unless we let them.
 
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