Umm, in all fairness, didn't gun-buffs used to call the AR-15 and Maadi "assault rifles" back before the '94 ban?
Unless I misapprehend, _we_ (as a community) used to use the dreaded "AW" term freely for civ semi-autos of military heritage, until it suddenly became a political football.
This all happened back when I was playing Super Mario Brothers and eating Cheerios for lunch, so feel free to correct me. It does strike me as a little disingenous that we could get upset about a "mislabelling" that we ourselves created.
I understand that the term is loaded these days, but still.
-MV