Subman1, just because the ATF says it, doesn't make it so.
They can wake up tomorrow and intrepret a law differently, that will make us all criminals overnight.
The gun control crownd has very successfully brainwashed the general public into thinking that a semi auto copy of an M-16 is somehow different from any other semi auto rifle. My semi auto AR 15s are no more an assault rifle than my grand dad's Browning rifle was. The are functionally no different, and the Browning is based on the BAR that was used in both world wars. People have been hunting with semi auto rifles for over 75 years in this country, and all over the world, for that matter.
They've even managed to invent a class of firearms that doesn't exist...the "assualt pistol". What the @#$@#$@% is an "assualt pistol"??? According to them, I guess, it's a Tec 9 lol. You see where this is headed...they just want to ban *every* semi auto rifle and pistol ever made, but they need to demonize them first, so they've managed to insert the term "assault" into the debate, as a perjorative. "Who'd ever need an "assault" rifle?"
Of course, after they get the semi autos, then everything with a scope will be a "sniper rifle", and they'll come after those too.
Back to the story, though. I hope it's true...that I don't find it on Snopes.