A select fire rifle is only useful in certain circumstances that don't happen very often. That's why Drill Sergeants instruct the use of semi auto only. Full auto rifles are to hard to control to be useful in combat under most circumstances. Larry Vickers says anything past about 15-20 yards you get better results with aimed rapid semi auto fire.
That being said the news program is going to use whatever evil sounding term they can think of to help promote their agenda. Never mind the facts show that most "crime guns" are stolen (around 50 percent) and the second largest percentage (around 40 percent) are acquired through straw purchasers such as family and friends. These numbers might have changed slightly since my last ATF conference but I doubt it.