Thread: Military style semi automatics, and not-so-automatics, over the years.

I'm preparing a submission to you know who and thought I'd have a cool look at relative gun dangerousness. I welcome any informed criticism of the below facts - as far as I could ascertain them.

Historical Firearms Comparison.


Enfield Pattern 1853 muzzle loading rifle musket, of Maori Wars (.577" calibre Minie bullets and gunpowder)
Rate of fire: 2 shots / min.
550 yards practical range, 1200 yards safety zone. At 1000yds Minie rifles can pierce 4x4" plank.


Martini Henry, single shot breech loading rifle (.577 calibre black powder brass cartridge)
Rate of fire: 12 shots / min.
400 yards practical range, hazard to 1900 yards.


Double barrel 12G (.725" calibre) shotgun.
Rate of fire 24 shots / min. (About twice that of Martini breech loader as two barrels, less aiming required).
Range: 30-100 yards depending on shot size used.


Short Magazine Lee Enfield, five-round clip loading bolt action(.303" calibre).
Rate of fire 20-30 aimed shots / min.
550 yards practical range, Hazard to 3-4000 yards.


L1A1 Self Loading Rifle, 20-round detachable magazines (.308" calibre)
Rate of fire: 20 aimed shots a minute
700 yards practical range, hazard to 5600 yards.


AR-15 self-loading rifle. 30-round detachable magazines (.223 calibre).
Rate of fire: 40-60 aimed shots a minute.
600 yards practical range, hazard to 3600 yards.


AR-15 self-loading rifle. 7-round detachable magazines (.223 calibre)
Rate of fire ??? aimed shots a minute. -- I could not find estimates or studies of this, help appreciated.
600 yards practical range, hazard to 3600 yards.


Conclusions so far:

I don't want to stand in the firing line of ANY gun listed below.

The sawn-off double barrel shotgun, the criminals' choice, and a good choice it is for them. In police stats figure as pistols.

The Minie, scary that it accounted for 90% of deaths on civil war battlefields. 4" of soft pine at 1000 yards is scary too.

Practical range of firearms has not changed substantially since the Minie ball of the US Civil War.

Rate of fire jumped most dramatically from muzzle to breech loaders (6x), bolt actions to semis less marked difference, at least for roughly equal power cartridges (SMLE to SLR). For the majority of mass shootings, going by shot count and duration, high rates of fire were not essential, a Martini Henry could have done most.

No one ever got up from playing possum and went for a mass shooter as he was changing magazines.

Rate of fire is not the sole measure of a gun's mass-destruction potential but if we go that way, you could make a coherent argument for banning all except for muzzle loading rifles and shotguns. Once that is achieved someone may then pop up and argue that LH Oswald could have done it with an iron sighted 1853 Enfield, and those will get banned too. We would all be safe and stick to SoftAir, and as for pests they are managed by 1080 (dropped by drones for sake of elf'nsafety).