First semi-assault rifle sold to public?

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

What was the first semi-automatic "assault rifle" that was sold to the public in significant numbers, and when did that happen?

It looks like Armalite sold their AR-10 and AR-15 rights to Colt prior to either of those firms selling any such weapons to the domestic civilian market. Colt had a lot of trouble getting the military to adopt the AR-15, so to bring in some money and get the gun better-known, they made a semi-auto only version and started marketing it to the public in 1963 (The price was $189 then-- about $1500 now, with inflation). The Colt AR-15 model SP-1 dates to 1964.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/...ld-ar-15s-to-civilians-for-more-than-50-years

So, is that it?

Ruger's Mini-14 was developed in the early 1970s, I hear.

Armalite had the Model AR-180 on the market when I was a kid in the 1970s.
Wikipedia says the semi-auto AR-180 came to the civilian market in 1969.

Can anyone think of any makes and models from prior to 1963/ 1964 and the AR-15?

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

Okay, I am reading online that the first generation of military-surplus WWII and Korea war M1 Carbines were sold through the NRA (maybe also through some NRA/ DCM partnership or agreement) in the early 1960s. You had to be an NRA member to order one. (DCM = U.S. Army, Department of Civilian Marksmanship. The predecessor to what is known as the CMP today).
The cost was only $20 or $25.
The M1 Carbine of that period would commonly use 30-round magazines designed for the M2 select-fire carbine.
That would put it in the same "assault weapon" category as the ARs and AKs.

 

[chucklenut]

For as long as we have had rifles and assault, we have had assault rifles

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

So, does anybody know the year that the DCM (alone or with an NRA partnership) began selling M1 Carbines to the public?

This quote from a 1978 article in the NRA's American Rifleman magazine lists several models of guns the Army began selling their surplus quantities of, starting in the late 1950s, but it doesn't specifically which guns started being sold in which years.

"Between 1958 and 1967, when all sales were terminated, Americans purchased 12,000 M1903 rifles, 279,000 M1903A3 rifles, 3600 National Match rifles, 1600 service grade M1 rifles, 3200 NM and 145,600 service grade M1911 and 1911A1 pistols, 8,800 12-ga. shotguns and 207,000 M1 carbines."

 

[chucklenut]

Wouldnt a BAR count?

Didn't bonnie and clyde use a sbr version of that gun?

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

Bonnie and Clyde got most of their full-autos by robbing National Guard armories or police stations.
Their M1918 BAR / Colt Monitor was such a stolen N.G. gun, I believe.
Anyhow, this thread is about the semi-auto versions of assault rifles, not true full auto or select fire assault rifles.
And, even before the NFA passed in 1934, none of those full autos / select fires were popular with private individuals or sold to the public in any significant numbers.

 

[chucklenut]

Bonnie and Clyde got most of their full-autos by robbing National Guard armories or police stations.
Their M1918 BAR / Colt Monitor was such a stolen N.G. gun, I believe.
Anyhow, this thread is about the semi-auto versions of assault rifles, not true full auto or select fire assault rifles.
And, even before the NFA passed in 1934, none of those full autos / select fires were popular with private individuals or sold to the public in any significant numbers.

But they were available to them

Part of the reason the 1934 nfa bull**** was forced on Americans was the availability of guns to the public; this passed to supposedly help police with bootleggers .

The bootleggers went, they kept the gun laws, and its been us versus them mentality ever since

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

In 1927, Thompson / Auto-Ordnance came out with a semi-auto only version of their famous Model 1921 submachinegun. This semi-auto, the Model 1927, had the same 10" barrel on it, though, and that became a problem several years later when the NFA of 1934 was passed. Then it became a SBR, which ensured that it would never be popular with the public. Sales of these models were so bad, even before the 1934 restrictions came, that the company didn't try to make another semi-auto version of the Tommy Gun until the middle 1970s, with the 1927A1 (which had the post-1934 rifle barrel over 18").

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

Chucklenut, read the original post would you? You're going off-topic, talking about gangsters and their (stolen) machineguns. Start your own thread if you want to talk about that.

 

[chucklenut]

Chucklenut, read the original post would you? You're going off-topic, talking about gangsters and their (stolen) machineguns. Start your own thread if you want to talk about that.

Sorry, but words matter

You asked what the first assault rifle was available to public; i responded that alot weee available before 1934; and as a result of their availability the gov cracked down on gun ownership . The obvious fact is that THE GOV DECIDES WHICH GUNS ARE MORE DANGEROUS THAN OTHERS AS A PRECURSOR TO RESTRICTING LIBERTIES AND THEY WANT TO BAN MORE GUNS BY REFERRING TO THEM AS ASSAULT RIGLES;ERGO ALL GUNS DEEMED BAD BY GOVERNMENT OR AS BEING TOO DANGEROUS FOR CIVILIAN USE IS IN FACT NOW CLASSIFIED AS AN ASSAULT RIFLE WHETHER OR NOT THE DEFINITION OF ASSAULT RIFLES MAKES SENSE


Funny how even gunnuts cant agree on what the accurate definition is aint it

(Ps, why start a thread if you already know the answer?)

Later yall