John Wilkes Booth

I've been avoiding using the term 'assault weapon'. I use the AR-15 as an example of the type of gun I mean. I'm not saying to just specifically ban AR-15s.

edit - Maybe if there's no way to work out a coherent definition on which guns should be banned, it should be taken more on a case-by-case basis. I'm not demonizing it just for the fact that it's efficient and dangerous. Hand guns are arguably more deadly. For me the relevant factor that makes banning it seem like a good idea is that it's extremely useful for crime and not really useful for much else. Another example would be tear gas grenades. Are they inherently more dangerous than other legal weapons? No. But they're basically only useful in a combat situation. Which makes them both dangerous and virtually useless for legitimate purposes. Which in my view makes them a good item to ban.