Here’s what Kitzhaber’s spokesman says on behalf of the Governor:

“The governor sees no reason for civilians to have assault weapons – period,” said Tim Raphael, adding that it is a “fair inference” to say Kitzhaber is sympathetic to the bill sought by an anti-guns group to ban semiautomatic rifles classified as military-style assault weapons.” [emph added]

So what he’s in effect saying is he’s willing to ban hunting rifles. The ‘assault’ portion of these weapons is pure flair and glitz without actually impacting the 

way in which a bullet is discharged from a weapon. As gun aficionados say, “Assault is a way of thinking, not the function of a gun.” 

Plus, the Governor chooses to pursue a ban on “semiautomatic” rifles. But if “semiautomatic” is one of the evils he wishes to extinguish, then why would he stop there? What about hand guns? Most handguns sold in the US are semi automatic.

Many hunters use the AR 15 platform and their hunting rifles are the functional equivalent of so called “assault weapons.”

Steve Sanetti,President,National Shooting Sports Foundation says “assault weapons” are like hunting rifles,

“A semi automatic rifle, sometimes called an auto loading fire arm, fires only one shot for each pull of the trigger. You have to pull and release the trigger for every shot. That means functionally it’s no different than a standard hunting rifle.”

Some legislators appear to be confused about what an “assault weapon” is. They appear to be under the impression that an assault rifle is a fully automatic weapon. The following video explores the differences between automatic and semi automatic weapons.

Legislators want to ban the guns instead of trying to fix the problem of civilly committing mentally ill people without the ACLU’s interference. That has arguably caused more heartache than guns.

which also fire one shot for each pull of the trigger.