Fox Host Falsely Claims That "'Assault Weapon' Is A Pejorative Political Term"

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Fox co-host Steve Doocy agreed with senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation Larry Keane's false claim that “there is no such thing as an assault weapon” and that it “is a purely political term invented by the gun control community.” Doocy said in response to Keane's claim, “like you said earlier, 'assault weapon' is a pejorative political term.” In fact, the gun industry and firearm publications routinely used the term “assault weapon” to describe military-style semi-automatic rifles before the gun industry trade association and NRA tried to rebrand them as “modern sporting rifles” in 2009. From the June 20 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends:

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): The Orlando shooter did not use an automatic weapon but somebody forgot to tell left-wing celebrities like Susan Sarandon.

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): She wrote, “Prayers are not enough. Time for a ban on automatic weapons. There is only one reason they exist and that is to kill our fellow man.” ... What's your reaction to that? These politicians -- many politicians I should say, and many celebrities are totally misinformed.

LARRY KEANE: You're completely right. They are totally misinformed, they're ignorant, and they don't know what they're talking about. Modern sporting rifles, based on the AR-15 platform, are semi-automatic rifles, and semi-automatic rifles they have been in civilian possession for well over 100 years.

DOOCY: Sure.

KEANE: It is not an automatic weapon. It is not an assault rifle, which is an automatic weapon, and there is no such thing as an assault weapon. That is a purely political term invented by the gun control community in an effort to ban semi-automatic firearms.

[...]

DOOCY: But like you said earlier, “assault weapon” is a pejorative political term. Vox, the blog -- website, put up some images of the AR-15, and people blew up the internet, because they had said, “Wait, the average person can't get a grenade launcher for that.”

KEANE: Right. It's a semi-automatic rifle. It functions no different than any other semi-automatic rifle. It is not an assault weapon. That is an invented, political term by the gun control community expressly for the purpose trying to ban semi-automatic rifles. If we make people to think they're machine guns, it'll be easier to ban, that's what Josh Sugarmann from the Violence Policy Center said, and so that's a false term.