Didn’t see another thread on this issue. Why would one place the selector switch between settings?
The U.S. Army’s standard service weapon, the M4A1 carbine, has a defect that allows it to discharge a round without actually pulling the trigger. The flaw was caught on video earlier this year by a soldier at a shooting range, and testing by the Army has detected nearly a thousand weapons affected by the problem.
There’s a video on it somewhere. My understanding is that the switch can be placed halfway between semi and auto and the trigger pulled, nothing will happen but when the switch is moved to either semi or auto after that pull, the gun will fire.
I have searched for the video referenced in the article, but no luck. One would think if the M16A2 and A3 were part of the problem we would have known it before now.
I read the article. If I understand what it says, this involves the selector being moved from safe to a position it should not be in (between semi & auto), the trigger is pulled while the selector is in between semi & auto- not on safe- and the weapon fires, not at the pull of the trigger, but when the selector is moved to either semi or auto. Regardless of the precise moment the weapon fires, how is the weapon firing under these circumstances a “malfunction” or “unintended discharge”? It’s NOT on safe and the trigger is pulled, it’s supposed to fire. Not putting the selector in either of the two appropriate positions for firing isn’t a malfunction, it’s operator error, unless the selector is not moving as it should. I didn’t see anything saying the selectors are not moving as they are supposed to when pushed.
It doesn’t fire when the trigger is pulled. You pull the trigger and then once the selector is moved from the middle to either semi or auto, then the gun fires. That’s absolutely an unintended discharge.
It doesn’t fire when the trigger is pulled, there’s a delay until after the selector is moved again. So the trigger can be pulled while the weapon is in a safe direction, moved off target, the selector bumped into a different position, and then it discharges.
That’s pretty much what I first posted, so we agree on that. I still don’t see how taking it off safe & pulling the trigger creates an unintended discharge. The term malfunction may apply, if some parts aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do when used properly, but if you don’t use the selector, trigger, charging handle, forward assist, or mag release in the manner they were designed, that’s operator error. Take away the operator error and you have no malfunction in this case, or so it would seem. Maybe some parts are out of spec & defective, but to me this is like figuring out how to throw an AR pattern weapon hard enough to make the firing pin hit the primer, causing it to fire, and saying it’s a malfunction.
Can someone hold their thumb on the forward assist while firing and declare it to be a faulty weapon because it doesn’t cycle?
The gun discharges after the moment the trigger is pulled, when the selector is moved. From the moment the trigger is pulled and nothing happens, It will be a failure to fire, until the selector is moved to FA. When it discharges, the operator does not intend to discharge the weapon by moving the selector so it is an Un-intended discharge at that point.
I’m willing to admit that if people do something stupid with a weapon, then stupid things may happen. I call that operator error in this case, given the info I got from the links. If that’s a malfunction or unintended discharge to everyone else posting, then OK, I’ll concede that point for this thread.
What I’m trying to say is that a jackass may indeed have more problems (malfunctions and unintended discharges) than normal people doing normal things correctly. I would like to solicit responses on my other point, which is that nothing indicates that the weapons in this situation are experiencing these malfunctions or unintended discharges when operated correctly?
