CDZ What is the difference between a Machine Gun and an AR-15?

[justinacolmena]

A machine gun mounts on a tank & uses large caliber, at least .50" ammunition, loaded automatically from a belt rather than a magazine.

An AR-15 is a "carbine" — shorter than a standard rifle or long gun, and fitted with a pistol grip, but not short or small enough to be classified as a handgun.

 

[harmonica]

3 round burst was designed into the M16A2s to cut down wastage of ammo/etc

. The reason for this replacement was the massive waste of ammunition and very poor performance of soldiers who fired their rifles in fully automatic mode during the Vietnam War.

Burst mode (weapons) - Wikipedia
....even with 3 round burst, it's hard to put all 3 rounds on a man sized target at combat distances ...it is more for keeping their heads down/fire superiority/etc

 

[Pete7469]

Well, a machine gun is anything which is not a muzzle loader.

bwhaaaaah

And WHAT is a muzzle loader?

 

[Care4all]

ya'll are speaking Greek to me.... cut a girl a break, pretty please, I need more of a crash course, in "gun talk"....

I'm trying....

Keep asking questions and I'll try and explain it in easy terms.

I'm a former army small arms mechanic and competitive shooter.

Are magazines and clips, interchangeable words? I did not really understand the difference in your explanation above....?

 

[WinterBorn]

There is a law called the National Firearms Act that was implemented in 1934 that "regulates" (read that mega-taxed) machine guns. It was brought into law basically as a response to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre where 7 guys were executed by 4 guys with machine guns. So not being a gun guy, I would like to know what the difference is between the original definition of a machine gun which means any weapon that can be fired more than once with a single trigger pull, at least the way I understand it. This to me begs the question why an AR-15 or equivalent isn't a machine gun and why isn't it heavily regulated the way machine guns are?

I'm not at all a gun control advocate, but if we already have a law that's been on the books for 90 years that already taxes the crap out of machine guns, wouldn't that same tax and regulation extend to modern semi-automatic weapons?

AR-15s are single pull single shot semi-auto assault riffles... unless of course you modify with something like a bump stock. Machine guns are fully automatic

I still don't get it?

So for each and every shot, they have to pull the trigger? What makes it semi-automatic then?

Can you fire a lot of shots in one round? Holy crap... and come to think of it, what the heck is a "round"? How does that work? And what the heck is a "magazine"? I know less than a kindergartner, so please be gentle with this dummy!

And what is the power of the bullets out of an AR15 vs just a rifle? Cuz I read an article once by a doctor who works the ER and gunshot wounds and the doc said that these semi automatic Rifles tear the victim apart, and there are slim to no chance of survival if they are hit in an organ by them but if just a regular gun, the Docs have a much better chance of saving the victim even with a direct hit to an organ....???

The semi-auto shoots one bullet (or round) per pull of the trigger. If you want to shoot 30 times you pull the trigger 30 times.
The fully auto machine gun shoots as long as you hold the trigger and you have cartridges in the magazine. If you want to fire 30 rounds you pull the trigger and hold it until the 30 round magazine is empty.

A magazine is the part of the rifle that holds the cartridges waiting to be fired. It will typically be powered by an internal spring which will feed the cartridge into the chamber (part of the gun where the cartridge will be fired, just before the barrel) Any rifle that is not a single shot will have a magazine. A lever action (Like John Wayne used in the western movies) has a tubular magazine running along the underside of the barrel. To reload to insert one bullet at a time down that tube. The removable box magazine provides an enclosed magazine (with the springs) that is self contained and can be removed or inserted into the rifle, making reloading much faster.

A round is the bullet or projectile that leave the barrel of the gun. A cartridge is the entire ammunition assembly that is loaded in the magazine or weapon. It consist of a case, usually brass, that holds the bullet, the powder and a small primer that explodes or fires when struck by the hammer in the rifle.

The devastation caused by the bullet is caused by a combination of bullet size, composition, and speed coming out of the rifle. An M16 or AR15 fires a relatively small bullet. But the bullet is traveling at a very high rate of speed. When the bullet hits a body, not only does it penetrate and often go all the way through a human, there is a factor called "hydrostatic shock", which is pressure waves traveling out from the bullet wound, due to the speed of the bullet.

A rifle barrel also has grooves which spiral down the barrel. The rate of spiral, or how many inches down the barrel it takes to make one complete revolution, is part of the accuracy factor of the rifle. For example, a barreel with a 10" twist rate will have the bullet spin completely every 10 inches. It is expressed as 1:10 twist. A barrel with an 8" twist rate, will spin the bullet completely ever 8 inches, or 1:8. Obviously, a 1:8 twist spins faster than a 1:10 rate.

The grooved barrel of the rifle is filled by the bullet. For example, a .308 NATO bullet is 0.308 inches in diameter. The barrel on a rifle that fires the .308 NATO is 0.308 inches from the bottom of one groove accross the barrel to the bottom of the groove on the opposite side. Not counting the grooves, the barrel is 0.300 inches in diameter. So when the gun is fired, the bullet fills the diameter of the barrel, seals it so all the force of the powder exploding pushes the bullet.

I hope this helped.

 

[WinterBorn]

ya'll are speaking Greek to me.... cut a girl a break, pretty please, I need more of a crash course, in "gun talk"....

I'm trying....

Keep asking questions and I'll try and explain it in easy terms.

I'm a former army small arms mechanic and competitive shooter.

Are magazines and clips, interchangeable words? I did not really understand the difference in your explanation above....?

No. They are different things.

A magazine, as I explained above, is a self contained box that holds the cartridges waiting to be fired. A clip is a small, somewhat flat piece of metal that holds the cartridges by the groove on their base. It was a quick way to reload before box magazines came along. You insert the bottom of a stack of cartridges in a clip into the breech of the rifle and push down on either the cartridges or the cratridge and clip. This loads the internal magazine. The clip will either fall away after loading or fly out and fall away after the last cartridges have been fired.

 

[Pete7469]

Are magazines and clips, interchangeable words? I did not really understand the difference in your explanation above....?

No.

Clips generally hold ammo for the purpose of more rapidly loading a magazine. Their purpose is for storage in the short term.

The illustration below is an example of a clip, being used to rapidly feed a magazine.

A magazine is illustrated below. It is inserted into a weapon and stays in the weapon until it has been emptied.

There are other nuances that I don't want to confuse you with just yet. The SKS rifle and M1 Garands are examples of weapons that have magazines "fixed" or built in and they are fed by clips, but once you fully understand the concept it's not that hard to understand.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

ya'll are speaking Greek to me.... cut a girl a break, pretty please, I need more of a crash course, in "gun talk"....

I'm trying....

Keep asking questions and I'll try and explain it in easy terms.

I'm a former army small arms mechanic and competitive shooter.

Are magazines and clips, interchangeable words? I did not really understand the difference in your explanation above....?

No a magazine is a metal box with a spring in the bottom you load it and the spring forces the next bullet into the chamber when firing, a clip is a piece of metal that hold several rounds of ammo but requires a spring in the weapon itself to force the round up into the chamber. The M1 Garand uses an 8 round clip and has a spring inside the rifle an M16 uses a magazine.

 

[WinterBorn]

OK I get it, you need a bump stock to get the multiple shots per second out of an AR-15. But even an average shooter could fire at a rate of 2 rounds per second. So without a bump stock or other mod, the AR-15 is not a machine gun per the 1934 definition. But it also isn't much of a stretch to say that the AR-15 meets the "intent" of a machine gun which is to throw lots of lead in the air in a short period of time, yes?

per post # 6--it can be just as or MORE deadly than a fully auto weapon

A rifle is only deadly if the bullet hits something. A machine gun is notoriously hard to control, as it is firing over and over, making the gun jump with each firing. A semi auto allows you to aim as carefully as you need. A machine gun typically has a muzzle climb (the front end of the barrel moves up due to the recoil. Making careful aiming difficult at best. Unless you are shooting at a mass of charging enemy soldiers, the best thing a machinegun does is make everyone duck for cover. That is the main tactical use.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

So for each and every shot, they have to pull the trigger? What makes it semi-automatic then?

It's not that hard, once you cleanse your brain of the lies and confusion that you have been fed by the mainstream media.

With regard to firearms…

• “Automatic” or “Fully-Automatic” means that as long as you hold the trigger, and as long as there is a supply of ammunition being fed into the gun, the gun will keep firing repeatedly. By definition, a machine gun is fully-automatic.
• “Semi-Automatic” — When you pull the trigger, the gun fires one shot, then uses some of the energy from that shot to eject the spent ground, chamber a new round, and set it up for the next shot. This is similar to how most fully-automatic guns work, with the difference being that it does not actually fire that next shot until you release the trigger, and pull it again. You get only one shot for each pull of the trigger.

Some handguns are described as “Automatic”, but are, in fact, semi-automatic.

True assault rifles are capable of operating in at least two different modes—semi-automatic and either fully-automatic or burst-fire.

The term “assault weapon” is a fraud, concocted to confuse the public into thinking that weapons so described are comparable to fully-automatic weapons. The fraudulent anti-Second-Amendment Violence Policy Center even has a page on its web site admitting to the deception.

Assault weapons—just like armor-piercing bullets, machine guns, and plastic firearms—are a new topic. The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.​

In addition to the automatic modes described above, there are a few other categories.…

• Repeater — Like the automatic and semi-automatics, a repeater has a magazine that holds multiple rounds. But a separate action has to be carried out between shots, to eject the spent round and chamber another one, to set up for the next shot. Think of a pump-action shotgun, for example,or a lever-action rifle.
• Single-shot — There is no magazine. You can only load one round into the gun at a time. Once you fire that round, you need to manually remove the spent shell, and load a new round into it before you can fire again. The most recognizable, albeit imperfect, example that I can think of is a double-barrelled shotgun, which can be thought of as two single-shot shotguns in one unit. My wife has a single-shot shotgun, which would be a better example,if you can properly imagine it—try to visualize half of a double-barrel shotgun, and if you visualize that correctly, you'll know what I am talking about.

I think revolvers are considered to be outside of the above categories. A single-action revolver, you have to manually cock the hammer between shots, that action also turning the cylinder to put the next round into position. With a double-action revolver, pulling the trigger causes the hammer to be set back, and the cylinder to be turned, so that no other action is required on the part of the operator. Functionally, a double-action revolver is like a semi-automatic gun, though they are not considered to be semi-automatic. I'm not certain why they are not considered semi-automatic, but I suspect that understood definitions of automatic and semi-automatic assume that the energy to operate the action comes from the shot being fired, rather than from the operator's finger on the trigger.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

ya'll are speaking Greek to me.... cut a girl a break, pretty please, I need more of a crash course, in "gun talk"....

I'm trying....

Keep asking questions and I'll try and explain it in easy terms.

I'm a former army small arms mechanic and competitive shooter.

Are magazines and clips, interchangeable words? I did not really understand the difference in your explanation above....?

No.

In general, a clip is used to load a rifle's internal box magazine.

 

[Muhammed]

There is a law called the National Firearms Act that was implemented in 1934 that "regulates" (read that mega-taxed) machine guns. It was brought into law basically as a response to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre where 7 guys were executed by 4 guys with machine guns. So not being a gun guy, I would like to know what the difference is between the original definition of a machine gun which means any weapon that can be fired more than once with a single trigger pull, at least the way I understand it. This to me begs the question why an AR-15 or equivalent isn't a machine gun and why isn't it heavily regulated the way machine guns are?

I'm not at all a gun control advocate, but if we already have a law that's been on the books for 90 years that already taxes the crap out of machine guns, wouldn't that same tax and regulation extend to modern semi-automatic weapons?

Single function of the trigger. Not single pull of the trigger.

b)Machinegun


The term “machinegun” means any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.


If it was single pull of the trigger rather than single function of the trigger, bump stocks would be illegal.

 

[Pete7469]

This video is very instructive of how a fully automatic AK 47 functions.

 

[Care4all]

Thank you kind gentlemen! You have helped a great deal! Now I am going to you tube and search for tutorials, so I can put everything I was told together, in a picture/video...

Now back to Marathon Mike's question...

Is the intent of the law banning Machine Guns, the same that could be applied to AR15's or AK47's etc?

 

[Pete7469]

This video is how fast an M4A1 empties a standard capacity 30 round magazine.



That was me, squeezing the trigger one time and holding it until the weapon was empty.


.

 

[Care4all]

This video is very instructive of how a fully automatic AK 47 functions.

Thanks! I was just going to search for some tutorials!

 

[harmonica]

So for each and every shot, they have to pull the trigger? What makes it semi-automatic then?

It's not that hard, once you cleanse your brain of the lies and confusion that you have been fed by the mainstream media.

With regard to firearms…

• “Automatic” or “Fully-Automatic” means that as long as you hold the trigger, and as long as there is a supply of ammunition being fed into the gun, the gun will keep firing repeatedly. By definition, a machine gun is fully-automatic.
• “Semi-Automatic” — When you pull the trigger, the gun fires one shot, then uses some of the energy from that shot to eject the spent ground, chamber a new round, and set it up for the next shot. This is similar to how most fully-automatic guns work, with the difference being that it does not actually fire that next shot until you release the trigger, and pull it again. You get only one shot for each pull of the trigger.

Some handguns are described as “Automatic”, but are, in fact, semi-automatic.

True assault rifles are capable of operating in at least two different modes—semi-automatic and either fully-automatic or burst-fire.

The term “assault weapon” is a fraud, concocted to confuse the public into thinking that weapons so described are comparable to fully-automatic weapons. The fraudulent anti-Second-Amendment Violence Policy Center even has a page on its web site admitting to the deception.

Assault weapons—just like armor-piercing bullets, machine guns, and plastic firearms—are a new topic. The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.​

In addition to the automatic modes described above, there are a few other categories.…

• Repeater — Like the automatic and semi-automatics, a repeater has a magazine that holds multiple rounds. But a separate action has to be carried out between shots, to eject the spent round and chamber another one, to set up for the next shot. Think of a pump-action shotgun, for example,or a lever-action rifle.
• Single-shot — There is no magazine. You can only load one round into the gun at a time. Once you fire that round, you need to manually remove the spent shell, and load a new round into it before you can fire again. The most recognizable, albeit imperfect, example that I can think of is a double-barrelled shotgun, which can be thought of as two single-shot shotguns in one unit. My wife has a single-shot shotgun, which would be a better example,if you can properly imagine it—try to visualize half of a double-barrel shotgun, and if you visualize that correctly, you'll know what I am talking about.

I think revolvers are considered to be outside of the above categories. A single-action revolver, you have to manually cock the hammer between shots, that action also turning the cylinder to put the next round into position. With a double-action revolver, pulling the trigger causes the hammer to be set back, and the cylinder to be turned, so that no other action is required on the part of the operator. Functionally, a double-action revolver is like a semi-automatic gun, though they are not considered to be semi-automatic. I'm not certain why they are not considered semi-automatic, but I suspect that understood definitions of automatic and semi-automatic assume that the energy to operate the action comes from the shot being fired, rather than from the operator's finger on the trigger.

....per my many other posts--semi auto can be just as deadly--if not more--than fully automatic = the semi auto is worse

 

[Pete7469]

Thank you kind gentlemen! You have helped a great deal! Now I am going to you tube and search for tutorials, so I can put everything I was told together, in a picture/video...

Now back to Marathon Mike's question...

Is the intent of the law banning Machine Guns, the same that could be applied to AR15's or AK47's etc?

No, because the NFA of 1934 did not ban machine guns. It applied a tax to the sale. $200 at the time was a massive expense.

It also required registration, a lengthy back ground check, and (correct me if I'm wrong) finger printing and photographs for ID.

 

[harmonica]

Thank you kind gentlemen! You have helped a great deal! Now I am going to you tube and search for tutorials, so I can put everything I was told together, in a picture/video...

Now back to Marathon Mike's question...

Is the intent of the law banning Machine Guns, the same that could be applied to AR15's or AK47's etc?

No, because the NFA of 1934 did not ban machine guns. It applied a tax to the sale. $200 at the time was a massive expense.

you can even own a tank
These Vehicles Are Tons of Fun, and Good for Thwarting Road Rage

 

[Care4all]

This video is very instructive of how a fully automatic AK 47 functions.

Holy CRAP! That's fast! And what causes that metal casing like shell thingy to get thrown out of the gun after the shot, and before the reload action?