Originally Posted by ferrets_bueller
I have been offline for happy, family related reasons. Upon my return, I see a topic about which I can speak with some authority: The killing power, and other attributes, of what I came to know as an M-16.
I challenge anyone here to find a post of mine calling out a fellow poster. Disagree? Absolutely. But I've never said anything like this:
Slave is absolutely full of shit.
I carried, and fired in anger and with effect, an M-16 for my first two months in combat. No one in my platoon, other than whoever was walking point at the moment, ever kept their rifle on automatic. Because after you've emptied the clip in a few seconds, you would be fumbling around with an empty magazine. Or your dick in your hands, which is generally combat ineffective. So most of the time, the preferred combat mode for the M-16 was semiautomatic. The high speed tumbling bullet inflicted hideous wounds. This was before 30 round magazines; ours were twenty. (This was a factual flaw saw in "We Were Soldiers", which was my unit, albeit I was there later in time.)
I was then trained, in-country, as a sniper with a balanced M-14 and match grain ammunition. (I did not have extensive Carlos Hancock type training; I shot the thing for three weeks in Bien Hoa and returned to my platoon) It did not. I say again not... have an automatic capability. Yet when my turn came, as it did regularly, I walked point with that rifle. Armed with 20 rounds and 7.62mm bullets, I could get off a ferocious field of fire when I had to do so.
Both of those rifles were indisputably weapons of war. I had four kills with the sniper rifle for ambush positions.
The AR15 is not a goddamn "fun" weapon. It was designed to kill people. I would ban it if I could. If not, I would take the following steps:
1. Many gun devotees, members of my former platoon among them, say gun control should be "You control your gun and I'll control mine." I say fine. But if your gun is used in a crime, then you should go to jail for not securing it. If you sell it to someone who has not passed a background check, the same thing goes. If it is stolen from anyplace other than a government certified location, and used in a crime, you go to jail.
2. You may only transport your rifle from one private property to another in a disassembled state.
3. Possession of magazines in excess of ten rounds is hereby illegal.
4. Other thoughts on this can be found on a long ago post where I drafted a "Well Regulated Militia Act."
Saying that an AR15 is not a weapon of war because it has no automatic capability is simply moronic.
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