Just got thinking about this while watching a Black Ops II video reviewing my favorite rifle both in game and in Meatspace.
The FAL in the Call of Duty games is locked in Semi-auto, much like how the British locked out the auto-sear on their L1A1 rifles. In the game this is done as a “Nerf” to make the gun a little less powerful and rely more on the skill of the player. As shown in the video the player can spend a skill slot to unlock the Auto-Sear, and as said in the video the auto-sear perk is pretty popular (personally I do pretty well with semi-auto only, as that’s how I train in real-life).
The 1994 Assault Weapons ban was pushed heavily by confusing “Semi-Auto” with full-auto weapons already restricted by the NFA. Again the famous Josh Sugarmann quote:
Assault weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully-automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons –anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun– can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.
I wonder if even the voter’s kids know the difference between semi-auto and full auto, that this nonsense can be spread.
**UPDATE** Interesting on his channel I found that he hosted a gun debate between a Brit and an American on gun control, and probably because they’re all online gamer friends, and they aren’t gun activists on either side it was one of the most civil and thought-provoking debate.
Also nice to hear like myself, a lot of the online gun-gamers are also real-life gun owners and carry permit holders.


