un. The cartridges were lighter and so was thegun. The recoil or kick was down to an incredible two inchesfrom the enormous ten inches put out by the now obsolete M14.Because the ammunition of the M16 is a lot smaller theUnited States soldier can carry a whole lot more ammunitionthan he previously could. The lower size and weight means thatthe M16 assault rifle is maneuvered better and is also handledeasier.5Eugene Stoner took many features from other army’sstandard issue rifles and made the ultimate weapon above andbeyond any other gun available just for the United StatesArmy’s soldier. Stoner also made the M16 extremely cheap tomanufacture, and also easy to use.6When the M16 was first field tested it had a few bugs topull out and fix. Stoner promptly fixed them and it was testedagain. It was fine except the army told the soldiers that theM16 did not need to be cleaned. This led to severe problems.The army used a ball gun powder instead of the regular gunpowder to give the M16 some more kick. The ball powder meltsand becomes gummy and clogs up the gun’s barrel causing theM16 to jam and malfunction.7The M16 was first put into action in the year of 1968 inVietnam. Some soldiers had loaded guns but when the soldierswere within arm’s length away from a Vietnamese soldier thathad a gun, the United States man would not be able to shootthe Vietnamese one because his gun was jammed. Thishappened more often than not. These brave men were shot bythe Vietnamese people. The M16 was tested to see if it wouldjam and it did but the army still put out as standard issue.These soldiers would still be alive if the army had not put theguns that failed the jamming test. After many reports of theseatrocities the powder was changed back to the original type. The army also gave out personal cleaning kits.8In the winter of 1997 no police forces used assault rifles. They only carried semi automatic pistols,.38 caliber revol...
