Years ago on the Air Force gun range....we had Sarge (the trainer) to get the question about the difference of the M-16 (we were shooting that day with it) and the AR-15. He had a AR-15, which he could demonstrate.
So Sarge laid the two weapons down, and there were basically three basic differences: different trigger/hammer, different disconnector, and a safety modification. The safety? On the civilianized version.....there was safe/single shot. The military version had safe/single shot/3-shots/full-automatic.
Beyond that....it was the same weapon.
And then came the shocker on history....the AR-15 was developed and ready in the early-1950s. It would be almost ten years later before the military reached a level of accepting the military version (M-16).
This led to a ten-minute sequence of Q-and-A,
The ammo clip? You can go back to the 1880s/1890s and view various developments between the French and Germans. The box-magazine? Already around in the 1888 period (British development).
So there was a open discussion then over weapons and maturity. Sarge brought up a point, which has stuck to my mind over the years. The services don't let you out of boot-camp unless you can show some maturity over handling a weapon. If you go out to the Air Force or Navy gun-range in basic.....they spend a good amount of time talking over handling and behavior.
During my day at basic training and the gun range.....somewhere down the line in another group.....some idiot went into some behavior like you'd expect a 7-year old kid. Gun-handling? He lost it....with the instructor grabbing his weapon before he did stupid crap.
Among gun instructors....they all have some story like that from basic training and note that if you act this way.....they won't have you on the range, and you are finished with boot-camp.
If you asked most folks of today....attending military boot-camp, I would take a guess that more than 50-percent have never handled a weapon in their life.
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