The Difference Between Machine Guns and Assault Rifles?

[Tempguy]

A machine gun can be select fire, just no reason to.

Ehm The 50 cal already is. There are reasons I suppose. Don't ask me to think of one, just pointing out that the little knob on the back end holds down the button to make it full auto

http://www.m2gun.com/images/fig3-2.gif

Misread. You got it. But anyway, yeah, I can't really fathom a reason why I need to single fire a 50...

[Kellhound]

Machine gun is a broad term, it's not usually used to refer to select fire weapons. Select fire weapons are technically machine guns, but they aren't what is colloquially referred to when someone uses the term machine gun.

What most people think of is a long barreled gun intended to provide sustained automatic fire, it being capable of firing a single round would not change that.

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Ehm The 50 cal already is. There are reasons I suppose. Don't ask me to think of one, just pointing out that the little knob on the back end holds down the button to make it full auto

http://www.m2gun.com/images/fig3-2.gif

Misread. You got it. But anyway, yeah, I can't really fathom a reason why I need to single fire a 50...

It was used as a sniper weapon during 'Nam.

[Tempguy]

It was used as a sniper weapon during 'Nam.

Oh man...I feel bad for the guy who got hit by that....

[ZazuuPriest]

It depends on who/where you ask. It's all just 'names' in the end.

In the US, a 'machine gun' is any weapon that fires more than one bullet per trigger pull. This is largely synonymous with 'Automatic'. 'Assault Rifle' is any rifle that has a selective fire mode, and box cartridge 9there are other aspects too). Assault rifles usually have smaller ammunition than Battle Rifles.

Many people see any rifle that isn't a bolt action as an 'assault rifle' but isn't. Fully automatic weapons (selective fire or not) are not legal for civilian ownership.

LOL, no

A machine gun is a fully automatic belt fed military weapon, not available to the public through legal means and only legitimate arms dealers would be selling these things to african warlords because they are big and expensive, joe gangbanger isnt going to have this shit

An "Assault Rifle" is just a politicized term for any rifle with a military style stock and assembly, you can take a ruger rifle take out the part that actually shoots slap it on a carbon fibre stock and body and make it look like it can kill 100 people in under 30 seconds but it doesnt. Anyone who uses the term Assault Rifle doesnt know that they are talking about. The AR in AR-15 doesnt even stand for Assualt.. or Rifle... or any version of those words you can think of.

[Chrysia]

LOL, no

A machine gun is a fully automatic belt fed military weapon, not available to the public through legal means and only legitimate arms dealers would be selling these things to african warlords because they are big and expensive, joe gangbanger isnt going to have this shit

An "Assault Rifle" is just a politicized term for any rifle with a military style stock and assembly, you can take a ruger rifle take out the part that actually shoots slap it on a carbon fibre stock and body and make it look like it can kill 100 people in under 30 seconds but it doesnt. Anyone who uses the term Assault Rifle doesnt know that they are talking about. The AR in AR-15 doesnt even stand for Assualt.. or Rifle... or any version of those words you can think of.

You're literally wrong about everything you stated here, and I don't know why you brought up the AR when the person you quoted didn't.

[Witchblade77]

just to point something out. rifles available for civilian purchase in a store do not have full auto capability. even if military version of the same gun does - there ARE 2 different versions. it was already pointed out that to get the gun capable of full auto, not only its ridiculously expensive, but there are also a lot of paperwork, waiting periods etc that one must deal with.

I'm talking legally, of course.

edited to add - its also highly illegal to modify your rifle to have select fire capability

[Kellhound]

LOL, no

A machine gun is a fully automatic belt fed military weapon, not available to the public through legal means and only legitimate arms dealers would be selling these things to african warlords because they are big and expensive, joe gangbanger isnt going to have this shit

An "Assault Rifle" is just a politicized term for any rifle with a military style stock and assembly, you can take a ruger rifle take out the part that actually shoots slap it on a carbon fibre stock and body and make it look like it can kill 100 people in under 30 seconds but it doesnt. Anyone who uses the term Assault Rifle doesnt know that they are talking about. The AR in AR-15 doesnt even stand for Assualt.. or Rifle... or any version of those words you can think of.

Assault Rifle is a proper term for any rifle or carbine that is select fire, uses a detachable magazine, and fires an intermediate round. Looks have nothing to do with it. A Ruger Mini-14 is not an assault rifle, but a Ruger AC-556 is.

AR= Armalite RIFLE

[Waaldo]

One kills people and the other kills people slightly faster. In the end, it's all about the death, so who fucking cares about immaterial classifications.

[PACOX]

All I know is that if you mess up the definitions then all of your arguments for gun control are suddenly null and void.

[Skilrathos]

I bet they would flip if they realized they also advice us on car deals and try to keep us from getting scammed.

Bwahaha...Yeah. I always told my Marines to never buy a car right outside of the base. If one does then they deserve that 29% interest they get fucked with.

[Ghostpanther]

It depends on who/where you ask. It's all just 'names' in the end.

In the US, a 'machine gun' is any weapon that fires more than one bullet per trigger pull. This is largely synonymous with 'Automatic'. 'Assault Rifle' is any rifle that has a selective fire mode, and box cartridge 9there are other aspects too). Assault rifles usually have smaller ammunition than Battle Rifles.

Many people see any rifle that isn't a bolt action as an 'assault rifle' but isn't. Fully automatic weapons (selective fire or not) are not legal for civilian ownership.

Actually they are http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/1...hs-in-80-years however they are heavily regulated and restricted. In 1995 there were 240,000 registered with the FBI, about half of those were by private citizens.

[Auxora]

Assault Rifle is a proper term for any rifle or carbine that is select fire, uses a detachable magazine, and fires an intermediate round. Looks have nothing to do with it. A Ruger Mini-14 is not an assault rifle, but a Ruger AC-556 is.

AR= Armalite RIFLE

The whole Armalite thing gets brought up often to incorrectly state that the AR-15 isn't an assault rifle. Armalite is just the company name, not the style. That would be like saying a Ford isn't a car. Companies and pro-gun folks don't like to use the term assault rifle because of the negative connotation due to the many mass shootings in the past 20 years, but that doesn't mean the gun isn't one.

Anyway, the general understanding for most people is that an assault rifle is a high-velocity, and usually high-capacity, long gun that at least can shoot semi-auto (which exactly describes the AR-15). Machine gun is usually referred to as guns that can shoot auto, but they do not necessarily need to be long guns (Uzi for example).

Again though, when you get into these terms it quickly drags into a hornet's nest because gun companies and pro-gun folks don't like those terms for marketing and connotation. In the end a duck is a duck, even if it sounds better to call it an aquatic bird.

[Schattenlied]

LOL, no

A machine gun is a fully automatic belt fed military weapon

The ATF (via the National Firearms Act) disagrees with you, and their definition is federal law, therefore you are wrong.

The ATF/NFA defines anything that fires more than one bullet per trigger pull as a machine gun (yes, even pistols like the G18 and Beretta 93R).

"National Firearms Act Definitions
Machinegun

26 U.S.C. § 5845(b)

For the purposes of the National Firearms Act 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"

From the ATF's website.

That definition is all encompassing, pistols, rifles, SMGs (there's a reason the "MG" in SMG stands for "machinegun", they are machineguns that shoot pistol cartridges, and none are belt fed), belt fed, a fucking minigun, doesn't matter, if it's full auto or select fire, it's a machinegun. This is federal law, that's just about as concrete a backing as a definition can have.

[Kellhound]

The whole Armalite thing gets brought up often to incorrectly state that the AR-15 isn't an assault rifle. Armalite is just the company name, not the style. That would be like saying a Ford isn't a car. Companies and pro-gun folks don't like to use the term assault rifle because of the negative connotation due to the many mass shootings in the past 20 years, but that doesn't mean the gun isn't one.

Anyway, the general understanding for most people is that an assault rifle is a high-velocity, and usually high-capacity, long gun that at least can shoot semi-auto (which exactly describes the AR-15). Machine gun is usually referred to as guns that can shoot auto, but they do not necessarily need to be long guns (Uzi for example).

Again though, when you get into these terms it quickly drags into a hornet's nest because gun companies and pro-gun folks don't like those terms for marketing and connotation. In the end a duck is a duck, even if it sounds better to call it an aquatic bird.

AR-15 is actually a trade mark of Colt for its semi-automatic rifles based on the Armalite design. Thus is isnt an assault rifle.

An assault rifle is a very specific thing: a rifle or carbine, magazine fed, select fire, shooting an intermediate round. Calling anything else an assault rifle is incorrect. The Uzi is a submachinegun. As I said, a machine gun is broadly any fully automatic weapon, but generally it is understood to be a long barreled firearm intended to provide sustained automatic fire using an intermediate or heavier (generally not to exceed 15mm) round. I.e., say "machine gun" and most people think something like Rambo firing an M-60, not a Swedish K.

More that anti-gun folks like to put scary names to things they do not understand.

[Malfecto]

3 pages over the definition of two words... fascinating.

I have always understood machine gun to mean to represent how the weapon fires, ie one pull of the trigger activates a mechanism that sustains an action. In this case, fully automatic fire.

I have also understood assault rifle to be a term that differentiates the rifle by its role in the field versus, say, a battle rifle which maintains higher round and distance standards.

Assault weapon is anything I can assault you with; Broken bottle, an axe, or my fists.

[XangXu]

You know it really doesn't fucking matter what kind of gun you own. Weapons in this day an age are not akin to the musket or the 6-bullet shooter.

They are science fiction death weapons that are extremely accurate and none of your founding forefathers could ever imagine that kind of firepower that would be available to the common citizen today. I mean honestly, if you fucking Americans are so brain dead as to allow the kind of weaspons that you due be freely availble to people, you might as well make weaponized anthrax and nukes available as well.

Where does the line end? Rocket launchers? Lazer rifles? Proton Packs?

I'm sick and tired of your country creating gun-crazy psychopaths that you unleash upon the world all because "fuck off, I like guns".

The day is coming when the world will turn its back on you and leave you to your own destructive devices. This is 2016. This is a new world. We don't NEED the united states any longer to baby us through an emerging modern civilization. Right now you are an angry child throwing a tantrum.

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3 pages over the definition of two words... fascinating.

I have always understood machine gun to mean to represent how the weapon fires, ie one pull of the trigger activates a mechanism that sustains an action. In this case, fully automatic fire.

I have also understood assault rifle to be a term that differentiates the rifle by its role in the field versus, say, a battle rifle which maintains higher round and distance standards.

Assault weapon is anything I can assault you with; Broken bottle, an axe, or my fists.

What an extremely petty argument. If anything can be used as a weapon then you have just proven that you don't need any modern firepower in order to defend yourself since you are apparently quite adapt at fighting with a broken bottle.

Or your fists apparently. You know Kung Fu I guess. Good for you.

[Schattenlied]

You know it really doesn't fucking matter what kind of gun you own. Weapons in this day an age are not akin to the musket or the 6-bullet shooter.

They are science fiction death weapons that are extremely accurate and none of your founding forefathers could ever imagine that kind of firepower that would be available to the common citizen today. I mean honestly, if you fucking Americans are so brain dead as to allow the kind of weaspons that you due be freely availble to people

they made it vague for a reason, do you really think they were stupid enough to think firearms tech would never advance? They weren't morons, and repeating rifles did in fact exist at the time, tech was actively moving forwards... They very specifically wanted people to have the same infantry weapons as the government.

you might as well make weaponized anthrax and nukes available as well.

Now you're just being stupid.

Where does the line end? Rocket launchers? Lazer rifles? Proton Packs?

It ends where the equivalent of whatever the common infantry weapon at any given time is.

I'm sick and tired of your country creating gun-crazy psychopaths that you unleash upon the world all because "fuck off, I like guns".

Guns aren't the problem, we had them, of this kind exactly, for many many years before this shit started... We need to fix the disease, not treat a symptom.

The day is coming when the world will turn its back on you and leave you to your own destructive devices.

What does the rest of the world do for us right now, to try and keep us from our "destructive devices"? Nothing at all. Nothing would change if you "turned your backs on us", so go right ahead.

Right now you are an angry child throwing a tantrum.

Says the person throwing a tantrum on an internet forum.

[Adam Jensen]

It depends on who/where you ask. It's all just 'names' in the end.

In the US, a 'machine gun' is any weapon that fires more than one bullet per trigger pull. This is largely synonymous with 'Automatic'. 'Assault Rifle' is any rifle that has a selective fire mode, and box cartridge 9there are other aspects too). Assault rifles usually have smaller ammunition than Battle Rifles.

Many people see any rifle that isn't a bolt action as an 'assault rifle' but isn't. Fully automatic weapons (selective fire or not) are not legal for civilian ownership.

Honest question: What about burst fire? Shot an M-16 a week ago on 3 round burst, was a good time. But does that qualify as "machine gun?" Note that these particular M-16s that the Air Force trained me on had their automatic fire capacity replaced by burst. Literally, they scratched off "Auto" and scratched on "Burst" on the selector lever and changed whatever innards they had to change.

[Schattenlied]

Honest question: What about burst fire? Shot an M-16 a week ago on 3 round burst, was a good time. But does that qualify as "machine gun?" Note that these particular M-16s that the Air Force trained me on had their automatic fire capacity replaced by burst. Literally, they scratched off "Auto" and scratched on "Burst" on the selector lever and changed whatever innards they had to change.

By law it is still considered a machinegun.

[Malfecto]

You know it really doesn't fucking matter what kind of gun you own. Weapons in this day an age are not akin to the musket or the 6-bullet shooter.

They are science fiction death weapons that are extremely accurate and none of your founding forefathers could ever imagine that kind of firepower that would be available to the common citizen today. I mean honestly, if you fucking Americans are so brain dead as to allow the kind of weaspons that you due be freely availble to people, you might as well make weaponized anthrax and nukes available as well.

Where does the line end? Rocket launchers? Lazer rifles? Proton Packs?

I'm sick and tired of your country creating gun-crazy psychopaths that you unleash upon the world all because "fuck off, I like guns".

The day is coming when the world will turn its back on you and leave you to your own destructive devices. This is 2016. This is a new world. We don't NEED the united states any longer to baby us through an emerging modern civilization. Right now you are an angry child throwing a tantrum.

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What an extremely petty argument. If anything can be used as a weapon then you have just proven that you don't need any modern firepower in order to defend yourself since you are apparently quite adapt at fighting with a broken bottle.

Or your fists apparently. You know Kung Fu I guess. Good for you.

Whoa man. I was merely trying to offer some clarification. It wasn't an argument. To make the distinction that anything can be used as a weapon in an assault. There wasn't any bravado there.

Maybe don't drink and post.