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Posted: 10/26/2006 3:19:37 PM EDT
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is the AK an assault rifle or a submachine gun? (true ak's not our semi auto varients because those are not assault rifles and there is no such thing as an assault weapon) i was always under the impression it was an assault rifle but i often here it refered to as a submachine gun. like here in this post over on uzi talk link |
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I don't think the Kalashnikov could be considered a submachine gun |
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It would be considered an assault rifle because of the round it's chambered for: 7.62 x 39, which is a rifle cartridge. A submachinegun, by definition, is a shoulder-mounted firearm capable of full-auto fire chambered for a pistol cartridge. By this definition, an M-16 variant firing the 9mm round would be considered an SMG. An M-16 variant firing the 5.56 NATO would be and assault rifle, even though the base weapon would be identical. At least that's how I've understood it since I was about 12 or 13, which was 40 years ago! Damn, I'm old!!! 
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All correct above, for the most part. Regardless of what "the people" might say, the traditional rule is if it fires a pistol round, it is a SMG (sunch as the Thompson, the MP40, MP5, M3 etc). Sure, there are peculair exceptions when things happen that God never intended, like 9mm Colt M-16's... but this is the Devil's playground and he likes diversity in firearms... as do we. So even though a Krikov or 10" barrled Colt Commando with a collapsibel stock is compact, handy, and small, they are not SMG's, but still "assault rifles" by their own defintion of intermediate power round, lighter recoil, intermediate engagement ranges, etc (as compared to a Mosin Nagant or '03 Springfield...). Look at the source, the Kuwaiti news agency...??? This is just an e-news article. What do we expect from a journalist. |
technically it is an automatic pistol. (although im sure its for a much different reason from the media) it is an automatic loading pistol. the ACP in .45ACP stand for automatic colt pistol. |
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