taking away "assult" rifles would be taking away a right. it would be taking away a right to keep and bear arms.
I think the 2nd ammendment absolutely applies today regardless of what kind of weapons they had back then. the people need to have power over the government, and the government should fear the people (unfortunately this isnt the case anymore and its now the other way around)
I think the people should have access to whatever the military has access to. obviously in a well organized way. a militia should have access to what a branch of the military has access to, and an individual should have access to what a soldier has access to.
ie an individual would have access to what an individual foot soldier in any military branch has access to. but he would have to go through the proper training, and it would only be used within the militia itself, not outside of any militia activity. basically the militia would be a military branch but run by the people.
i know its far fetched, and people say we dont have a need for a militia. regardless, we should have the ability to form one, AND have the same power a government military branch has.
you can already get silencers, fully automatic weapons, etc.. with the proper permit, submitting an application and a bunch of other pain in the ass stuff. im not a fan of whats required to obtain one, but im glad we can, and im glad it takes more than just walking into a gun store, waiting 45 minutes for your background check to clear, and walking out.