assault weapon

Definition of assault weapon

: any of various automatic or semiautomatic firearms especially : assault rifle

Examples of assault weapon in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web In early August, the nation was grieving two back-to-back mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas, and country musician Jason Isbell tweeted in support of banning assault weapons. — Emma Grey Ellis, Wired, "The 8 Most Important Memes of 2019," 21 Dec. 2019 Much of the opposition has focused on a proposed assault weapons ban. — Alan Suderman, Anchorage Daily News, "Thousands gather in Virginia capital under heavy security for gun-rights rally," 20 Jan. 2020 Stricter gun laws, which include universal background checks and banning military-style assault weapons, are at the top of the governor’s list, the AP reported last week. — Washington Post, "NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week," 15 Nov. 2019 Earlier this month, McMillon announced that Walmart will stop selling handgun ammunition, ammunition commonly used in military-style assault weapons and ask customers to stop openly carrying guns at stores. — Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN, "America's CEOs have a new spokesman. He's from Walmart," 19 Sep. 2019 Besides banning the sale of assault weapons and implementing a mandatory buyback, O’Rourke aims to implement a nationwide registry of gun owners. — Amanda Blanco, courant.com, "Beto O’Rourke visits Newtown, meets with gun control activists," 30 Oct. 2019 On guns, just 42% support a mandatory buyback of assault weapons while 54% oppose such a proposal. — Bill Glauber, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Marquette poll shows Wisconsinites split on impeachment push against Donald Trump," 23 Oct. 2019 O'Rourke and Buttigieg argued about gun control, with the mayor saying the Texan himself wasn't even sure how the mandatory federal buyback of assault weapons he's called for would work. — Steve Peoples, chicagotribune.com, "Democratic debate: Rivals repeatedly criticize Elizabeth Warren, reinforcing her new status as a front-runner," 16 Oct. 2019 Now, Alpers said, essentially all those measures will be back up for discussion, particularly regulation of assault weapons. — cleveland, "New Zealand prime minister says gun laws will change in response to terror attack," 16 Mar. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'assault weapon.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

17 Feb 2020

Cite this Entry

“Assault weapon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assault%20weapon. Accessed 25 Feb. 2020.

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