It must have an intermediate-power cartridge: more power than a pistol but less than a standard rifle or battle rifle. For full-power automatic rifles, see List of battle rifles;
Its ammunition must be supplied from a detachable box magazine;
It should have an effective range of at least 300 metres (330 yards).
Rifles that meet most of these criteria, but not all, are technically not assault rifles, despite frequently being called such.
For example:
Select-fire Amogh carbines are not assault rifles; their effective range is only 200 yards.[5]
Select-fire rifles such as the FN FAL are not assault rifles; they are battle rifles and fire full-powered rifle cartridges.
Fully-automatic-only rifles like the M231 Firing Port Weapon are not assault rifles; they do not have select-fire capabilities. In contrast, the original ArmaLite AR-15 would meet the criteria.
Select-fire rifles with fixed magazines like the Cei-Rigotti are not assault rifles; they do not have detachable box magazines.
Several of the rifles on the below list have non-assault rifle variants. Because they lack the selective fire capability as they only fire semi-automatic even though it fulfills the other requirements of the definition above.
^"Colt's AR-15 Model 601 Automatic Rifle". 2021-08-27. Retrieved 2024-10-12. They found that this lightweight selective-fire small-caliber rifle not only met, but exceeded the performance of the standard-issue 7.62mm M14 service rifle.