The “beaten with rifle butts” part. Which part of the discussion does that refer to? Is it implied as being more assault-y in the list provided by Airman Doors, USAF?
Not before true automatics were developed, but the Army nomenclature called the Model 1911 series ‘automatic’.
Pistol, Caliber .45, Automatic, M1911A1
Colt Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, Government Model
Manual of the Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, Model of 1911
Automatic Colt Pistol, Military Model, Calibre .45 [Model 1905]
Colt Automatic Pistol, Pocket Model, Calibers .32 and .380 Hammerless [Model 1903]
WAG: Back then, ‘automatic’ was used to distinguish the semi-automatic pistols from revolvers.
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Getting back to Non-LEO/Military uses for semi-auto weapons – I don’t hunt. To me, guns are for self defense. If the time comes when I need to use it, I don’t want to have only one shot. Do you?
FWIW, the now-expired Assault Weapon Ban limited magazines to ten rounds. I suppose someone thought that was “enough” bullets- where the number came from I have no idea.
Effectively, “assault weapon” has been used to mean “any firearm other than a traditional hunting rifle, revolver or semi-automatic”. This was based on the presumption that firearms that were semi-automatic versions of full-auto military rifles (AR-15 v. M-16a) were somehow deadlier than traditional guns. You often hear such guns described as “high powered”, which is a joke when you’re comparing a gun like the AR-15 to a hunting rifle that shoots 30.06 rounds. And once upon a time it was possible with some semi-automatics to illegally convert them to full-auto relatively easily. This is no longer the case; it’s illegal to sell a gun that wouldn’t require most of it’s working parts replaced to be made full-auto. This produced imbecilic things like banning rifles functionally no different from legal hunting rifles, banning features that have little or no use in a non-military setting (bayonet mounts), or features that have no conceivable effect on the gun’s functioning (like having the magazine on a pistol not be in the grip).
To be specific it covered an attachment for rifle grenades. A grenade launcher like the M203 is already covered by the NFA. (I think the grenades themselves are already covered under the NFA as well.)
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the vast majority of handguns these days have “semi-automatic” action - firing one bullet for each trigger pull until the ammo runs out, whether they’re revolvers or semi-automatic pistols with removable magazines.
Somewhat true. You have semi auto handguns, which fire, reload, and recock the (sometimes internal) hammer, so that you have the same shot each time.
Double action revolvers are also capable of being fired with each pull, but when you manually cock the hammer for the first shot, the trigger pull is much different on the subsequent shots, as the next trigger pulls cocks the hammer and fires. I takes a lot of training fire both ways accurately.
Likewise, some semi autos are double action only. You get a long and hard trigger pull each time you fire.
And many revolvers are single action only. The shooter must manually cock the hammer each time the gun is fired.
So, yes, most pistols today have a feature where you can fire a gun with a subsequent squeeze of the trigger, but saying so is much like saying that all cars go faster when you depress the gas pedal: technically true, but if you have a stick shift, other factors are in play..
To answer the OP and keeping it GQ, is there a use? Of course. Just like my automatic sleep timer turns off the TV after a predetermined time instead of me having to manually turn it off. It is convenient and makes the job of turning off the TV (or reloading a gun) less labor intensive. Whether the feature has more risk than reward is GD…
“Semi-automatic” doesn’t just mean “one shot per trigger pull until the ammo runs out”, it’s a more technical term about the actual operating mechanism at work - see wikipedia.
It’s true that a double-action revolver fires one bullet for each trigger pull (without having to manually cock the hammer in between shots, as you do on a “Old West” style, single-action revolver), but such revolvers are never referred to as “semi-automatic” by anyone knowldedgeable about firearms - as the wikipedia article states:
“A double-action revolver also requires only a trigger pull for each round that is fired but is not considered semi-automatic since the manual action of pulling the trigger is what advances the cylinder, not the energy of the preceding shot.”
Yes, they were - up until well after WWII, in popular use “automatic” referred to the fact the gun would automatically reload itself with each pull of the trigger. Full-auto weapons were large things like Maxim and Lewis guns until after WWI - Sub-machine guns didn’t come about until 1918 and were known as “machine-carbines” in the UK until after WWII, at least.
Up until WWII there weren’t that many SMG designs anyway - a few MP-18 types (including the MP-34), the Thompson M1928A1, the Schmeisser, and the MAS-38 were about it.
Interestingly, the cartridge the M1911 was chambered for is .45 ACP - ACP stands for Automatic Colt Pistol. There’s several other cartridges with a similar deisgnation, including the modern .45 GAP - Glocl Automatic Pistol.
Biggles books frequently referred to the bad guys carrying “Automatics” and meaning semi-auto handguns too, FWIW.
Yes. Here’s one here. IPSC shooting competition.
Here’s Jerry with a simple revolver. No one else is that fast, but you’d still be surprised by what some of us can do.
Skeet shooting. Some use a double barreled shotgun, some use a semi-automatic.
Trap, sporting clays, same thing.
Is there any use for a Porsche or Ferrari outside of racing?
If
The Pentagon defines the term “assault rifle,” and David Kopel quotes that definition in an article in the Journal of Contemporary Law. He writes:
As the United States Defense Department’s Defense Intelligence Agency bookSmall Arms Identification and Operation Guideexplains, “assault rifles” are “short, compact, selective-fire weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between submachine gun and rifle cartridges.”[21]In other words, assault rifles are battlefield rifles which can fire automatically.[22]
”
(b) DEFINITION OF SEMIAUTOMATIC ASSAULT WEAPON- Section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
(30) The term semiautomatic assault weapon’ means–
`(A) any of the firearms, or copies or duplicates of the firearms in any caliber, known as–
`(i) Norinco, Mitchell, and Poly Technologies Avtomat Kalashnikovs (all models);
`(ii) Action Arms Israeli Military Industries UZI and Galil;
`(iii) Beretta Ar70 (SC-70);
`(iv) Colt AR-15;
`(v) Fabrique National FN/FAL, FN/LAR, and FNC;
`(vi) SWD M-10, M-11, M-11/9, and M-12;
`(vii) Steyr AUG;
`(viii) INTRATEC TEC-9, TEC-DC9 and TEC-22; and
`(ix) revolving cylinder shotguns, such as (or similar to) the Street Sweeper and Striker 12;
`(B) a semiautomatic rifle that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least 2 of–
`(i) a folding or telescoping stock;
`(ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;
`(iii) a bayonet mount;
`(iv) a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor; and
`(v) a grenade launcher;
`© a semiautomatic pistol that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least 2 of–
`(i) an ammunition magazine that attaches to the pistol outside of the pistol grip;
`(ii) a threaded barrel capable of accepting a barrel extender, flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer;
`(iii) a shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel and that permits the shooter to hold the firearm with the nontrigger hand without being burned;
`(iv) a manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more when the pistol is unloaded; and
`(v) a semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm; and
`(D) a semiautomatic shotgun that has at least 2 of–
`(i) a folding or telescoping stock;
`(ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;
`(iii) a fixed magazine capacity in excess of 5 rounds; and
`(iv) an ability to accept a detachable magazine.’.
IOW, this was illegal under the AWB. Can anyone explain what possible difference the location of the magazine makes? Other than it looks like a scary evil Nazi gun? :smack:
The C96 magazine is an integral part of the frame; it’s not detachable*
*results may vary on the M312 Schnellfeuer and some of the Spanish copies
AIUI, that clause was targeted at things like the Tec-9.
IOW: 
AIUI:
I have to get hip to more net abbreviations.
Yeah, but why?. The only thing I can think of is that it accommodates a high-capacity magazine more easily, and that’s already covered under a different provision. Or is this literally “someone thought it looked evil and scary”?
In Other Words, As I Understand It.
Wholeheartedly agree.
I don’t want to get into a GD here, but millions of U.S. citizens posses guns for self defense. This is a legitimate reason to own guns, just as hunting and target shooting are legitimate reasons to own guns. A semi-auto rifle is the best tool for the job, hence the reason they are so popular.
Put another way… when it comes to the defense of myself, my family, and my community, I want the *best *tool for the job. A high quality, semi-automatic rifle is the best tool for the job. This is the primary reason I own them.
I agree, it is silly to ban them just because they are ‘scary’ - let’s just pass a law that they all must be bright pink - to make the less scary and easier to identify…
I had to cry when I realized what it had been used for. It should become known as the ‘Bushmaster Babykiller’. No wonder Ceberus is selling the company.
Yes. Semiautomatic handguns are easier to shoot accurately than a double-action revolver, since the shooter feels less recoil and the gun’s trigger is lighter. (The strong finger pull you have to use in order to fire a revolver can actually pull the gun off target if you’re not careful, and some women can’t pull the trigger of a double-action revolver at all).
A revolver and a semiautomatic pistol in the hands of an average shooter have a similar rate of fire. An expert can fire the pistol a bit faster than the revolver, though, but it’s not a huge difference.
Just a nitpick, but this is the definition of an “assault rifle.” A street sweeper is an assault weapon, but is not a rifle. Our Federal laws use some terms inconsistently (the National Firearms Act, for example specifically calls out shotguns with short barrels).
I’m a firearms owner and have been shooting since I was about 9 or 10. I think most folks with experience with firearms would agree that any firearm (heck, or a butter knife) becomes an “assault weapon” as soon as it is used to assault someone. Some weapons are better suited to the task than others.