question about rifle classification

[delcosheriffsucks]

this is probably one of the stupidest questions asked to date, i have a rifle magazine fed, semi auto, and holds 15+1, does this classify it as an assault rifle? its a .22

EDIT it is tubular magazine fed

[rwilson452]

Assault rifles are select fire. Assault weapons are anything the person wants to call an assault weapon. there are no assault weapon bans in PA. Most states that have assault weapons bans exempt 22 rimfire. Which ones I don't know and I ain't gonna look it up.

[knight0334]

As mentioned above - it would not under the true definition. As for the false definition - not that I know of in the states that still have that goofy law. It required a detachable magazine, where as just about all tubular mags are fixed.

And since the federal law had sunset awhile back - it doesn't matter if it did or not.

[OneLungMcClung]

Originally Posted by delcosheriffsucks

this is probably one of the stupidest questions asked to date, i have a rifle magazine fed, semi auto, and holds 15+1, does this classify it as an assault rifle? its a .22

EDIT it is tubular magazine fed

"Assault Rifle", as rwilson452 pointed out, in its pure form, is a select fire (meaning that is has more settings then just "SAFE" and "BANG" ) rifle that feeds automatically (meaning that you don't load a new round into the chamber by yourself - recoil or gas or whatever does the work) and is fed by a detachable magazine and has a pistol grip, AND, in general, fires what was once called a "short" rifle cartridge.....but later on rifles came to use "full size" rifle cartriges. It is a military term that has unfortunately been abused by those who want to use it for a legal term. Assault Rifles are either Military rifles, or some of the NFA firearms that are classified as "Machine Guns".

Now "Assault WEAPON" is a little different. This is the term that the chicken little crowd uses to describe, as rwilson452 said again, anything they want. Generally that "anything" is something scary, semi-auto, usually a sporting rifle that is modeled after a real military rifle (think AR-15, and "AK" clones), and has horrifying, death delivering, massacre inducing, child mashing, "WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU NEED THOSE FOR" features such as a pistol grip, detachable magazine, bayonet lug *GASP*, or flash suppressor.

To answer your second question about your .22 - I'm from the People's Republic of California originally - and I was there when Feinstein's illegal ban on "Assault Weapons" took place (and still remains in effect to this day, likely to never disappear ). .22 Rimfire rifles that had a tube fed mag were specific exclusions from the "Assault Weapons" list IIRC. Meaning they were legal - so you could have tube mag with what would normally be called "Hi Capacity" - meaning more than 10 rounds (more nonsense) and your rifle together without getting spankings from Dianne.

All of this is moot. Pennsylvania is a free state, and as such we have no limitations, other than Federal ones, on what you can purchase. There is no illegal, horseshit, "assault weapons" ban here.

Even in the horrifying and unlikely event that we did get one, you would likely be safe.