General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: With the destructive power of guns increasing year over year something HAS to be done [View all]Recursion
(56,582 posts)They were not that popular in WWI because there wasn't much maneuvering going on. But there were semi-automatic carbines (what we today call "assault weapons" .
if guns are not improving, why is R & D money being spent on them?
Err... I don't think very much is, really. There's some things like new polymers for lighter weapons, or putting GPS in the stock, or stuff like that, but there's not really active research like there is in lasers and railguns.
what do the new gun models offer that previous ones didn't? Surely something must be getting better.
Very little. The AR-15 was designed in the 1950's, and the AK-47 was designed in the 1940's. The semi-automatic versions of both have been available to civilians since then, though they weren't terribly popular until Congress tried to ban them.
Let me turn that around: what do you perceive has changed?