First, don't let them define the terms. Assault Rifles have been strictly controlled since 1934, as have all fully automatic or select fire firearms have been since that date. An assault rifle is select fire. There is no such thing as an "assault weapon", and here's why - the national definition of one was contained in the original AWB, which died in 2004. No such definition in national law exists at this time to the best of my knowledge.
What you want is called an MSR, or Modern Sporting Rifle. It may be semi-automatic, and have the capability of accepting detachable magazines, but it is not a military rifle.
No military has adapted a semi-automatic rifle for general issue for at least 50 years.
OK, semantics aside, what happens to the rifle you buy is wholly up to the courts and the politicians. Don't forget New York City registered "assault rifles" years ago, and over the gun owners howls of protest, they said, "it's just so we know who to take them back to if they're stolen!" Years later, they used that same list to round them up. California did it too, with the SKS registration glitch, as SKS carbine owners were told they had a grace period to register their rifles, and then were told they missed it, please turn them in. Now.
Last, I still don't think the support is there for a general AWB, since the proof IS there that it did absolutely nothing whatsoever. Also, we have something else we didn't have back in 1994 - Supreme Court decisions in our favor, two of them so far, and now a Circuit Court of Appeals decision that the 2A applies to carry outside the home. These decisions can stand as a mighty brake on wavering politicians who might seriously fear being tied to a law that gets overturned as Un-Constitutional.
In the meantime, buy what you want/can afford, and like the cover of the book
Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy says, "Don't Panic."
