Can a rifle designated as an "AR-15" be anything but semi-auto?

To clarify my question - are there any TRUE fully automatic AR's that are designated with an "AR-15" nomenclature?  

Or once an "AR-15" is converted to full auto (legally), is it no longer an "AR-15"?  If not, what would it become?

I think if an AR is modified with only USGI parts, no rdias or rll, then it's truly an M-16. I might be mistaken, but I think the original version for the Air Force called the AR and I believe it was select fire.

The M-16 that I am trained with are orginal AR-15 that the AF purchased back in 1964 they have an AR-15 Colt Logo and "M-16" in lower case type.  These have also just been recently coverted over to M-16A3 specs they left them full-auto. Damn shame, they should have just left them alone.  The ones I trained with at Lackland were AR-15's covered to M-16A2 with burst.  These are real junk though, I wouldn't trust my life on them, that's for sure.

I'm pretty sure some of the earliest rifles used by the US Army were designated AR-15.  Really, AR-15 was just the type name given to the rifle originally, be it select fire or not, M-16 is just the military designation.  I think using the term AR for semi-rifles and M16 for select fire is something that developed later out of the fact that military FA rifles were redesignated M16 and the semi-autos sold to the public retained the old name.  I'm sure the rifles originally tested by the military, which were select fire, had "AR-15" written on them.  

All of the full-auto Armalite guns are stamped "AR-15" as are many of the early Colts specificaly Model 614. It was not until DOD adopted weapon as M16 did Colt start stamping them M16.

M-16 is merely the Military designation of an AR15. Same as M4, M1A, etc....

Agreed. M16 is just the military term for the AR15 that they use which has been Colt. However, manufacturers don't name their AR15s as AR15s. ArmaLite .223 rifles are known as M15A2s or M15A4s whether they are semi-auto civilian models or their full-auto/burst LE models. Bushmasters are XM15ES in most cases whether they are semi-auto or full auto. Other manufacturers will have some sort of "M" or "AR" in the name of their AR15 type rifle.

So yes, you can say that AR15s can be full-auto. That is where SUR -Sport Utility Rifle jumps in as the semi-auto AR15 [:D]

[b]ArmaLiter[/b]

Here is an example of a Factory Colt Model 614 Full-Auto:

[img]http://renegade.tgtech.com/Pix/AR-15Model614.jpg[/img]

When I went to basic in 1982, and as a DI in 1986, I saw plenty of AR-15 marked lowers. I had two in my platoon that had slab sided lowers, one had a four digit serial number-I wonder how long that rifle had been in Ft Bennings weapons pool? A number had no fence around the mag release, just the raised area for the front push pin. We had rifles marked XM-16E1, M-16A1 marked Hydramatics and H&R's, as well as M-16A1 marked Colt rifles. All had birdcage flash hiders and trapdoor buttstocks. A number still had chrome bolt carriers, and at least one trainee had a rifle with an early bolt without the tapered cam pin hole, so the bolt could be assembled with the ejector facing the wrong way (which he did-once[;)]).