M-16 TO THE COLT SPORTER
The Most Popular Weapon Of Choice For Killing People — I was a competition shooter, age retired now, can’t compete with the kids anymore, and over six decades spent a lot of time in the shooting clubs and supporting sporting organizations. Besides age, I came close had I continued shooting Sporting Clays, to surgery, TMJ will put an end for that. I’m guessing about 1/8 million rounds assorted hit paper or clay.
I am an
advocate for the sports, recreation, competition end of shooting, and my time
being on the front line of the NRA ended when they went from being “ Of the
People” to “Of the Money and Political People with Distortions and
Bribes.”
Lately the Colt Sporter or AR-15 has unfortunately made the news, again and again. It rose in popularity just as the GLOCK plastic shelled guns took gun lovers by storm, the Sporter became the next phenom.
It shared some basics with the GLOCK, which offered less weight, higher capacity, low profile, reliable, low maintenance, and available in many calibers.
The sporter is lighter, shoots faster than most battlefield rifles, very high up to 100 rd. capacity, non rusting components, highly reliable, tons of accessories to make you look like a badass, and accurate plus available in several calibers.
Years ago I got to test fire and evaluate the prototype being evaluated for our Special Forces. Because of work I have done for the Military, I have been on occasion invited to certain functions normally civilians don’t usually get invited to.
I am a contractor who does work on projects for the military, own an AR-15, competent to fire the weapon. The test was for the new shorty something like thirty years ago, I had dark hair, lots of it, and fast reflexes. I don’t own it any more, preferring hand guns in the wars fought in my condo over parking places and music at the pool choices.
So far so good, I have not been attacked by anyone from building five or had to defend my parking space from illegal parking.
I was test firing the “shorty” version during it’s trials with bells and whistles, a compact version of the M-16. Being evaluated by the Military for its special assignment troops, it was, lighter, faster, smaller, and more powerful due to ammo improvements. I found it easy to handle, worked great strong side, weak side and slighter built or female soldiers were very comfortable with. It easily could fit anyone and for a short barrel, with it’s unique twist, I was hitting anything I could see. When asked “How did I like It?, “I replied, I want one”. Then he let me do a three burst…cool …
It was being certified before initial issuance to special forces, designated Prototype M-17 at that time and the new number became the M4A1. At the special demonstration shown above at MacDill AFB, I had the prototype (I believe adapted or modified built by Knight Arms) that had the Mil-Spec three shot burst (Auto) lever to single shot (Semi-Auto) and Safe plus a forward grip and a whole bunch of optical attachments on the picatinny rails. During the course of that day, I was totally impressed with the product and voted a sound yes, and get them to our troops ASAP.
The forward vertical grip allows more toys to be attached to the rails and a varied positional hold for certain conditions. I was still using a conventional forward hold. I did get to shoot it with the hand grip and will change my forward grip to the picatinny rail to add the light and forward handle.
After approval it was the first builds of the shorties went to the Air Force security personnel as they had the oldest weaponry of the services some dating real far back like WWII. I could relate to that. While on flight status several decades and wars ago, I was issued a S&W Model 10 .38 Caliber handgun as a survival weapon in this ugly WWI rotten leather holster had we gone down somewhere near Russia. I think the real reason we got the junk guns was if we did go down in arctic water we were dead in twenty minutes anyway, and the two rounds were for you and your buddy if you wanted to end it that way. No sense given us the good stuff. Encouraging …
Back to the trials: The compact M-16 was a dream, like I said my hair was still black then, and I was 25 lbs. lighter. Now before any critics want to comment on my lack of hearing and eye protection, bug off. I have custom deep ear protection form fitted deep with noise abatement, in my ears with tiny velcro sponge overs and my glasses are my prescription shooting glasses (Oversize Orange Lexan) for sporting clays. I fell in love with sporting clays, trap and skeet till TMJ stopped long gun shooting for me.
The Colt AR-15 “Sporter”
One common denominator behind these and other high-casualty mass
shootings in recent years is the use of assault style rifles, capable of firing
many rounds of ammunition in a relatively short period of time, with high
accuracy. And their use in these types of shooting is becoming more common:
The customer favorite for mass killing is now the AR-15/M-16 series. This
year it has surpassed the AK-47 because it is more accurate, lighter,
faster, and does carnage better.
There have been eight high-profile public mass shootings since July of last year, according to a database compiled by Mother Jones magazine. Assault-style rifles were used in seven of those. All AR-15’s because of the availability and the fact its a money maker for gun dealers practically killing the market for any other venue sales of firearms. And money is the driver of the weapons market. The problem is the more there’re on the streets is the more the body count rises.
- Since this Saturday Night / Sunday AM 147 incidents involving shooting have occurred and 57 killed across the nation.
- November 4, 2017 - A Church in Sutherland Texas, 26 Parishioners killed, 12 in the hospitals
- Six months ago, in San Bernardino, Calif., a man and woman armed with assault-style rifles killed 14 people and wounded 20 others at a holiday party.
- In 2012, in Aurora, Colo., a man armed with an assault-style rifle killed 12 people and wounded 58 others in a crowded movie theater.
- Also in 2012, in Newtown Conn., a man armed with an assault-style rifle killed 28 people (20 of them children) and wounded 2 others at an elementary school.
- I really thought when one of their own got shot at baseball practice in Washington, things might change… his weapon was an SKS, a Chinese tricked out war weapon. The NRA bribe money is too powerful. Since the article was written there are three more attacks using the same weapon.
M16/Ar-15 - It Was Designed For The Military —
ITS PRIMARY PURPOSE WAS TO KILL PEOPLE BETTER THAN WHAT WE HAD OUR TROOPS EQUIPPED WITH
The M16 rifle, officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16, is a United States military adaptation of the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle. The original M16 was a select-fire, 5.56×45mm rifle with a 20-round magazine. In 1964, the M16 entered American military service and following year was deployed for jungle warfare operations during the Vietnam War. In 1969, the M16A1 replaced the M14 rifle to become the U.S. military's standard service rifle. The M16A1 improvements include a bolt-assist, chrome plated bore and a new 30-round magazine.
In 1983, the USMC adopted the M16A2 rifle and the U.S. Army adopted it in 1986. The M16A2 fires the improved 5.56×45mm NATO (M855/SS109) cartridge and has a new adjustable rear sight, case deflector, heavy barrel, improved hand guard pistol grip and improved butt stock, as well as a semi-auto and three-round burst only fire selector.
Adopted in 1998, the M16A4 is the fourth generation of the M16 series. It is equipped with a removable carrying handle and Picatinny rail for mounting optics and other ancillary devices.
The M16 has also been widely adopted by other militaries around the world. Total worldwide production of M16s has been approximately 8 million, making it the most-produced firearm of its 5.56 mm caliber.
The US Army has largely replaced the M16 in combat units with the shorter and lighter M4 carbine, and the U.S. Marine Corps approved a similar change in October 2015. Placing an AR-15 side by side the average consumer will not be able to tell the difference from the M-16 tool of war and the AR-15 Colt “Sporter”. The third from the top shorty is the most popular version and it reflects in the civilian market as the various, probably close to twenty companies have a version looking quit similar.
The AR-15 is the civilian version of the M-16, rifle that has been produced in many different versions. The term AR-15 was chosen by Colt for the civilian models. AR-15 rifles are Semi-automatic lightweight gas-operated, magazine-fed, air-cooled, fire an intermediate size cartridge, and are manufactured with extensive use of aluminum alloys and synthetic materials.
The M-16 Military Version Has The Following Specifications —
Primary
function: Infantry weapon
Manufacturer: Colt Manufacturing and
Fabrique Nationale Manufacturing Inc.
Length: 39.63 inches (100.66 centimeters)
Weight, with 30 round magazine: 8.79 pounds (3.99 kilograms)
Bore diameter: 5.56mm (.233 inches)
Maximum range: 3,600 meters
Maximum effective
range:
Area target: 2,624.8 feet (800 meters)
Point target: 1,804.5 feet (550 meters)
Muzzle velocity: 2,800 feet (853 meters) per second
Rate of
fire:
Cyclic: 800 rounds per minute
Sustained: 12-15 rounds per minute
Semiautomatic: 45 rounds per minute
Burst: 90 rounds per minute
Magazine capacity: 30 rounds
Unit Replacement Cost : $586
There are literally tons of accessories you can fit to the AR-15 for your personal imaging though most are for intimidation, the deer or hog won’t know the difference. You can certainly impress your friends with some of these accessories and you might have other friends who will start to avoid you for being a nut.
Semi-automatic AR-15s for sale to civilians are internally different from the full automatic M16, although nearly identical in external appearance. The hammer and trigger mechanisms are of a different design.
The bolt carrier and internal lower receiver of semi-automatic versions are milled differently, so that the firing mechanisms are not interchangeable. The design changes were done to satisfy United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) requirements that civilian weapons may not be easily convertible to full-automatic. Even so, the full automatic M16 bolt carrier is now the most popular type, and is approved by ATF under grandfathering.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, items such as the “ Drop In Auto Sear" or "Lightning link," made conversion to full automatic straightforward. In some cases such conversion did require machining the lower receiver with use of a mill, as well as the substitution of a M16 bolt carrier group.
Such modifications, unless made using registered and transferable parts prior to May 19, 1986, are illegal. The Firearm Owners Protection Act in 1986 has redefined a machine gun to include individual components with which a semi-automatic firearm can be converted to full-automatic, based on a 1981 ATF ruling on machine gun parts.
Since 1993, the bolt carrier groups used in AR-15 type rifles for civilians have employed additional measures to prevent modification to full auto. Colt AR-15's use a metal alloy wall separating the fire control group from the sear, preventing use of full automatic parts.
The .223 Bullet — The .223 round is a maiming round, on impact it tumbles and rips flesh as it was designed to do. Even a poorly aimed hit can be dangerous and require the best in trauma room trained gunshot staff to treat. The doctors at the hospitals that serviced the dying and wounded at San Bernardino, and the staff at Orlando Regional Medical Center will testify to that.
San Bernardino clearly shows what two terrorists can do, and the .223 or 5.56 round they used killed 14 and sent 21 to the ER. It has at has no business being on the streets except for the police and military. It is not a home defense weapon, most likely you’ll do more harm than good as it can rip through drywall and into another room almost as lethal.
Its major role like the AK47 and clones is people count and wounding. In war a severely wounded soldier needs five stretcher corpsmen to get him to a MASH facility. That takes six to eight out of action. 35 innocents with less than 65-75 rounds fired. Imagine what they could of done had the police not stopped them. They had 1400 rounds with them and 5000 rounds total in their garage.
And let the police have the tools they need Mr. President. Don’t disarm the cops for political points, as was discussed after Ferguson, and let the bad guys get any more leverage. And San Bernardino proved the need for those “Bearcats” and protected “HUM VEES”.
The two weapons, AR-15 that might have been modified were, retrieved from the deceased killers in San Bernardino were both (according to one source) illegally converted to full auto which basically is nothing more than a change of a few sear parts, or reworking the sear and against the laws by the ATF. If so, they were purchased in 2007/8 and possibly converted…or read on.
They are keeping quiet about this, nothing confirmed but the straw purchase by the buyer make have implications. Who sold them the sear parts or converted the parts. A good practiced shooter can use the semi-auto mode with deadly results. Regardless it is a severe felony based on classification.
Fully Automatic weapons require a class three license. But this is yet to be confirmed buy the FBI and if so who did it, was it a gunsmith, a hack job, and how much more was the buyer or the terrorists involved. They did not have a license. Thats the real question or was a bump device used. Several are on the market.
The Bump Stock — LAS VEGAS
LAS VEGAS - Now a company ( defunct) by the name of Slide Fire has a stock a ten year old can fit to an AR-15, and AK-47s, Ruger’s and others which automatically converts the weapon to firepower equalling maybe surpassing a Full Auto Weapon. Very impressive and was totally legal at the time of the biggest mass murder in the US. The shooter in the following paragraphs had access to it, and could have killed a lot more. Especially with the 100 round drum.
It is Really A Congressional Problem and Bribes —
Based on the NRA
assumption these devices are for enthusiasts and hunters, I can surmise the
deer won’t stand a fracking chance. Be fair, arm the deer. And
the gun enthusiast, the NRA and especially the Congressmen who have been
bought off by the NRA with BRIBES need to put sanity into the equation.
Those
in Congress who protect the NRA, because of the vote by their constituents
should really be forced to attend the all of the 58 funerals from the Concert in Las Vegas.
You are not supporting the rights of the masses, even your own constituents, you are supporting gun nuts and the NRA. The NRA is also pushing for open carry and the acceptance of silencers as legal devices.
When the concentration camps after WORLD WAR II were found ( More than a hundred) and the bodies were exhumed Dwight David Eisenhower made the German people do the moving and reburial of a hundred and thousands maybe a million corpses.
Our Senators and Representatives who take dirty bribe money from The NRA should be forced to attend the burials. My guess new laws will be written like crazy….
Bump Fire Stocks — “Bump fire stocks,” devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to be fired as if they are fully automatic, were allegedly used by the gunman who killed almost 60 people at a Las Vegas concert Sunday. The question now being asked is why such items, which are being scooped up by gun buyers fearing new regulations, are so easily purchased when an automatic firearm is so hard to get?
More than 500 people were injured in the attack on the Route 91 Harvest festival when Stephen Craig Paddock allegedly opened fire from a 32nd floor room in the Mandalay Bay Resort. Among several weapons found at the scene were the devices that allowed him to fire more rapidly, killing and injuring more concertgoers than would be possible with a semi-automatic rifle alone.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is tasked with deciding whether bump fire stocks are legal under existing federal statute. The classification depends on whether “they mechanically alter the function of the firearm to fire fully automatic,” said Jill A. Snyder, ATF special agent in charge, during a press conference on Tuesday evening. “Bump fire stocks, while simulating automatic fire, do not actually alter the firearm to fire automatically, making them legal under current federal law.”
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, a Democrat, decried the use of bump fire stocks as a “loophole,” saying Tuesday that she would look into introducing legislation aimed at banning the devices. “The sale and manufacture of automatic weapons have been illegal since 1986. Automatic weapons produced before 1986 are highly regulated and tracked by the ATF,” Feinstein said in a statement. “A ban on bump fire stocks was included in my 2013 assault weapons bill, and I’m looking at how best to proceed with legislation to finally close this loophole. This is the least we should do in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. It should be our highest priority.”
Fake Guns Kill Too — On a warm September evening in Columbus, Ohio, panicked witnesses called police to report that a group of boys had robbed a man at gunpoint and fled into a maze of alleys and fences on the city’s east side. In the fading light, Officer Bryan Mason cornered two of the boys in an alley, where, according to police, 13-year-old Tyre King pulled a gun from his waistband. Mason fired three rounds, striking the teen in the head, chest and torso.
The black gun police recovered at the scene looked like their own department-issued, polymer-framed Smith & Wesson Military and Police semiautomatic pistol. It even had a laser sight. But police would soon learn that King’s weapon was a BB gun — a facsimile of the gun Mason used to shoot and kill the teen.
At a news conference the next day, Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs waved a stock photograph of the BB gun. “Our officers carry a gun that looks practically identical to this weapon,” she said. “. . . It looks like a firearm that could kill you.”
Police across the country say that they are increasingly facing off against people with ultra-real-looking pellet guns, toy weapons and non-functioning replicas.
Such encounters have led police to shoot and kill at least 86 people over the past two years, according to a Washington Post database of fatal police shootings nationwide. So far this year, police have fatally shot 43 people wielding the guns. In 2015, police also killed 43.
The Post analysis is the first accounting of fatal police shootings involving people armed with air guns, toys or replicas, a phenomenon last studied in depth more than 25 years ago, when Congress first sought to address the problem of police shootings involving toy guns. The 86 shooting deaths are among the nearly 2,000 people shot and killed by police since 2015, which The Washington Post is tracking, something no government agency does.
Currently On Sale At Wal-Mart In The Toy Department
“It is clear from this study that the orange plug marking system does not help police officers distinguish between toy guns and real guns,” concluded the 1989 report, which was managed by the National Institute of Justice.
The second study a year later reached the same conclusion, saying that police response when confronted with the guns was linked to environmental factors — such as what a police dispatcher tells an officer. Calls for service in a high-crime area, for example, might lead officers to consider “a worst case scenario,” said the report, overseen by the Police Executive Research Forum.
But it was the behavior of the person holding the toy gun that mattered most. “If they are told there’s a person with a gun acting in a threatening manner, that’s what they respond to,” said David L. Carter, a professor at Michigan State University who spoke to officers in 27 law enforcement agencies for the 1990 study.
Last year, Congress revisited the issue when Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) introduced a bill that would force the country to enact a law similar to California’s, which requires the entire surface of all toy and BB guns be painted a bright color.
“No child should ever die because a police officer or anyone else mistakes a toy gun for a real weapon,” Boxer said in a news release at the time. The bill stalled in committee.
Twelve states and the District and Puerto Rico have banned the guns or imposed restrictions on their use, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In the District, realistic-looking toy or air-powered guns cannot be possessed in public. In 2012, D.C. police seized about 450 imitation guns, according to the most recent data available.
In 2015, Boston outlawed imitation firearms in public. The law allows police to confiscate those guns, and they have seized 139 this year. Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans said if a facsimile gun has been used in a crime, police will charge a suspect with possession of a real gun. “They are the exact same unless you have it in your hand and take it apart,” Evans said.
The department sent every available unit, and they quickly came upon a black Honda Civic and a black Toyota Camry. Men wearing werewolf masks were hanging out of the cars’ sunroofs waving what appeared to be Heckler & Koch MP5 machine guns, according to Darnell and records.
Police disarmed the men. The guns were plastic toys, and the gunmen, university students were making a movie for a film contest. “This is what those of us in law enforcement are so concerned about,” Darnell said. “You never know what’s real or what’s not, so part of the solution is to ban the sale of toy or replica guns.”