Hitler coined the term "assault weapon." If .308's, 7mm's, etc are called high-power rifles, then technically they should be called low-power rifles. Hitler had forbidden research on rifles, the scientists were only allowed to design new machine pistols. They designed the low-power rifle and called it a machine pistol in order to get funding. When Hitler found out about the weapon, the troops had already been praising it. So instead of Hitler admitting his mistake of not allowing new rifle research, he designated it the "assault weapon." After WWII, since it was a rifle, militaries began calling them "assault rifles." I dunno what they'd actually be called if Hitler didn't name them since low-power rifles sound like something no soldier would want. Maybe sub-rifles. And now weapons are being developed with the 5.7 round. What the heck do you call them? They aren't really pistol rounds since they travel to fast. Aren't even assault rifle rounds, because they are too small.
Of course terms like automatic, autoloader, etc. are also confusing. Browning made the automatic name because it automatically reloaded it self. So then machineguns became "fully" automatic. Like most things, gun names are f'd up because no one thought ahead. But you can't really fault them for that. If I knew what was going to be developed in the future, I'd be a very wealthy man.[:D]