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In this day and age, the gun grabbing crowd is up in arms about banning the AR "assault style" semi automatic rifle that is in 5.56 caliber. They call it a weapon of war even though it is not used on the battlefield, not the version that is sold in gun shops which is always semi automatic. On the battlefield they use full automatic and burst fire weapons. A weapon that can fire a 5.56 round can also fire a .223 round. The 5.56 and .223 are identical in caliber size although the 5.56 has higher pressure. The 5.56 bullet is commonly used on the battlefield as the bullet for a soldier's primary weapon even though the soldier's weapon functions differently than a weapon of that same caliber sold at gun shops. The .223 bullet is not used on the battlefield and instead is a round commonly used for hunting varmint. The common AR or Armalite version of the 5.56 semi automatic might look like its used in war but its not. They do make other semi automatic rifles in 5.56 that are not on the AR platform and don't look like they would be used in warfare.
The .30-06 which was and is a popular bullet for hunting larger game such as deer used to be used in warfare and was the bullet that was fired from the soldier's primary weapon in WWII, the M1 Garand. By the time of the Vietnam era the Army had switched from the .30-06 to the 5.56 for two reasons. First of all, the 5.56 being a smaller and lighter bullet, soldiers were able to carry more ammo. Second of all, a .30-06 is much more likely to kill than a 5.56. Obviously a 5.56 bullet can kill but it is more likely to just injure somebody than the .30-06 which will usually outright kill somebody. The enemy expends more resources and manpower caring for their injured than it does caring for their dead, so that's why they wanted to just injure and not kill if they could.
The M1 Garand was a semi automatic, you get one shot per pull of the trigger. To this day they sell semi automatic rifles in .30-06 at gun shops that function the same way as the M1 Garand used in WWII.
That being said, why do people want to ban the 5.56 round instead of the much more powerful .30-06 round which is much more likely to kill?
Also why would people want to specifically ban semi automatic rifles of 5.56 on the AR platform when they make other semi automatic rifles of that same caliber which are not on the AR platform but function the same?
The .30-06 which was and is a popular bullet for hunting larger game such as deer used to be used in warfare and was the bullet that was fired from the soldier's primary weapon in WWII, the M1 Garand. By the time of the Vietnam era the Army had switched from the .30-06 to the 5.56 for two reasons. First of all, the 5.56 being a smaller and lighter bullet, soldiers were able to carry more ammo. Second of all, a .30-06 is much more likely to kill than a 5.56. Obviously a 5.56 bullet can kill but it is more likely to just injure somebody than the .30-06 which will usually outright kill somebody. The enemy expends more resources and manpower caring for their injured than it does caring for their dead, so that's why they wanted to just injure and not kill if they could.
The M1 Garand was a semi automatic, you get one shot per pull of the trigger. To this day they sell semi automatic rifles in .30-06 at gun shops that function the same way as the M1 Garand used in WWII.
That being said, why do people want to ban the 5.56 round instead of the much more powerful .30-06 round which is much more likely to kill?
Also why would people want to specifically ban semi automatic rifles of 5.56 on the AR platform when they make other semi automatic rifles of that same caliber which are not on the AR platform but function the same?