You have a valid point there but I don't think that's written in stone. Or at least I have never seen that defenition.
To be fair though, the CETME was not an assault rifle like it's grandfather was (The STG/MP44) because it shot a full size rifle round. So it is fact in the "Battle Rifle" catagory along with the FAL and M14.
While I agree that the M14 is not an assault rifle, I still think that most would agree that the CETME/G3 and FAL would still fall into the Assault Rifle catagory in most minds regardless.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_rifle
"Assault rifle is a term describing a type of
automatic rifle generally defined as a
selective fire rifle or
carbine, chambering intermediate-powered ammunition. They are categorized between the larger and heavier
light machine gun, which is intended more for sustained automatic fire in a support role, and the smaller
submachine gun, which fires a handgun cartridge rather than a rifle cartridge. Assault rifles are the standard
small arms in most modern
armies, having largely replaced or supplemented larger, more powerful rifles ('
battle rifles') such as the
WWII-era
M1 Garand and
Tokarev SVT. Examples of assault rifles incorrectly include the
AR-15 as it does not fire as an automatic, its military incarnation, the
M16 rifle is a fully automatic weapon, the ubiquitous
AK-47 genus, and the bullpup
FAMAS. More exotic examples include the
LR 300 By Z-M Weapons and the
HK G36, which makes extensive use of modern polymers and computer aided design.
The name is a translation of the German word
Sturmgewehr coined by
Adolf Hitler to describe the
Sturmgewehr 44, the firearm generally considered the first practical widely used assault rifle and effective progenitor of the concept. It gradually became the common (if not technically accurate) term for the sub-family of similar firearms, and also has been used retroactively with earlier weapons possessing such traits. While it is not a completely accepted or technically correct label, it is widely used to differentiate current small-caliber weapons such as the
AR-15 and
AK-74 from earlier semi-automatic or select-fire rifles that fired larger cartridges, such as the
M1 Garand,
M14,
HK G3,
CETME, and
FN FAL, which are sometimes referred to as 'battle rifles'. Technically, all are 'rifles' of different caliber, with some being semi-automatic or having select-fire capability, thus being either 'semi-automatic rifles' or 'automatic rifles'. Since the smaller-caliber weapons tend to be distinct in construction and modern use from their counterparts, the term 'assault rifle' has proven useful and popular for referring to them specifically."
FWIW, Here is another interesting web page that traces the concept of assault rifles back to WWI:
http://www.sff.net/people/sanders/ar.html
