[url]http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/785421/posts?page=1[/url]


By Stephen Weaver

During the latter stages of the Rhodesian Bush war, in the late 1970's a particularly salient tactical point was demonstrated to those
with eyes to see. Embattled Rhodesia, fighting for its very life and ostracized by virtually the entire world, quietly adopted a policy
change for its armed forces. As a result, the selector switches on thousands of FN-FAL rifles were deliberately switched from the
full-auto mode to semi-automatic as a matter of standard procedure. The reason was the shortage of ammunition brought about by
international sanction efforts. The effects were startling in that nothing changed as far as battle outcome in spite of a better-armed
and equipped enemy in increasingly superior numbers penetrating Rhodesia from three fronts. The communist-trained and supplied
terrorist maintained the full auto mode with their AK-47s right up until the end. When the final battles came, the outnumbered and
out-gunned Rhodesians had never lost a single encounter; rather, their demise came at the negotiation table-which is a point for deep
reflection.

What this proves is that semi-auto fire is a match for full-auto in the hands of determined and committed personnel fighting for home
and hearth. As we stand today with the threat of legislation banning the possession and/or manufacture of semiautomatic weapons, we
had best pause and consider this carefully. And a ban of so called assault rifles today will become a ban on your Remington 1100
tomorrow-bet on it. The Second Amendment has been dealt numerous and severe infractions in multiple, localized instances over the
past half-century. But never before has it faced the broad onslaught we now see. The avowed goal of those in our very government is
to strip us of our rights under the Second Amendment. Should this occur, however, it will ultimately be our fault, not theirs. The reason
for this is the Second Amendment. As an American in the middle of my fourth decade in this life I, like many others, look around in utter
shock and dismay at the rapid unraveling of our culture. I've managed to get to this point in life without running afoul of our laws even
once. I am not associated with or an adherent to any group espousing supremacist views, Nor do I advocate the violent overthrow of
the government... not at this point in time. I will confess to holding numerous politically incorrect attitudes, however.
.....more

It's the man, not the machine.

But this story factually suffers.

The Rhodesians standard rifle was for most of the time the L1A1 and the South African made equivilant. Those never had selector switches.

Metric FALs with selectors only arrived in the 70's, second-hand from Israel via South Africa in a deal arranged by the CIA {that also brought UZIs, Hueys, radios, parts for jets]. The Rhodisians did have the selectors removed from them, in order that they function the same as the older rifles.

How they handled the magazine problem between the two types I don't know.

Until 1961 Rhodisia was part of the British Commonwealth. Training and equipment was to the British standard. Aimed rapid fire from self loading rifles was part of that standard. SMGs were issued for close work-but that was actually kind of rare.

ArmdLbrl, what the hell are you talking about?  Metric FALs came before the L1a1, maybe not in SA, but elsewhere.  They didn't remove the selector switches, they just installed one that won't let you rotate the selector into the FA notch, all L1a1s I've encountered have this as a standard feature.  It was common knowledge before whatever happened in Rhodesia that 7.62mm rifles were basically a waste of ammo running on FA--M14s, FALs, whatever.  All Commonwealth pattern FALs have a change lever that prevents you from switching to FA except for the L2a1 squad automatics.

How can a FAL not have a change lever?  You seem to imply that they were somehow removed.  I've seen SA R1s and they have a selector just like all other FALs.  The selector is also the safety, and a critical component of the fire control parts, it would be very stupid to "remove it."  It is pretty trivial to make a metric FAL work the same way.  Also, you can do a simple mod to make inch mags fit metric rifles, or the metric mags work in inch guns without any mods at all.

Typical of a gun rag, the article is poorly researched and doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm sure if you are determined to defend your homeland, even bolt action rifles would work. Full-auto weapons, for suppression especially, are always preferred.  If anything though, the AK toters were "out-gunned" (and probably fired theirs on semi most of the time also).  

This article seems kind of dated, anyways--what legislation?  All in all, a very weak argument for stopping a semi-auto ban!