Why are US mil issued M16’s and M4’s select fire? Why? We, and by “we” I mean 11B’s like myself and 03’s, and the other doorkicker type guys never used burst in combat. I can count on both hands the times that myself and my unit were allowed to flick the selector all the way over, and it was always on a square range for the purpose of burning up ammo that needed burned up.
I don’t think they ever covered burst/auto in OSUT, other than to tell us not to do it, and I don’t recall any sustainment training that covered burst or auto in 5 years on active duty or 4 in the NG. I’m confident it never happened.
For both of my Iraq, and single Afghanistan deployment, they could’ve given us 6920’s, or pick a generic commercial M4gery, and overstamp ‘M4 Carbine’ after Colt, Stag, Bushmaster or whatever, and half of us probably wouldn’t have noticed a difference. Except for 240 and 249 dudes, nobody ever burst fired anything.
Now, I’m not talking about SOF. I have no idea what those guys’ needs are today, I’m just talking about the average Joe Swingindick.