Tactical Tuesday: Assault Rifle

It's Tactical Tuesday!

Today's topic is......Assault Rifle!

Okay. Let's be honest with ourselves....I am female (that me!)

My Y chromosomal deficit automatically means I don't know as much as one should about ballistic weapons. But never fear my future as a librarian relies on my ability to research. So I have spent a number of hours doing the necessary workload to select the best assault rifle I could for slaughtering legions of the undead.

Now I know what you're thinking....(because its the same thing I think whenever I hear gun-people talking) "all rifles are 'assault' rifles. What else do you use a rifle for? What makes a rifle an 'assault rifle'?"

An Assault Rifle must have four characteristics
1. A buttstock (that thing that goes into your shoulder)
2. Selective fire (semi-auto, automatic etc)

3. Cartridge stronger than pistol/handgun and smaller than a battle rifle

4. Magazine that detaches

Cross referencing these characteristics with my own Zombie Apocalypse requirements I have decided to spotlight the.......

FN SCAR-L MK-16 or MK-16S (the latter is the civilian-legal version, I love you America)

Why I chose it:

1) Cartridge This weapon uses the 5.56X45mm NATO round, a standard cartridge for NATO countries meaning there are a lot of guns that use them and a lot of these cartridges laying around, a very important characteristic to remember when contemplating a zombie apocalypse. It's important to remember that once the world comes crashing down around our ears they will probably stop making bullets after a while, so it'll be important to not have a weapon that's picky. Also, the 5.56X45mm round has a tendency to fragment upon impact, extremely useful when shooting an undead creature in the skull in order to explode its evil infected gray matter. (This also is useful in stopping very live and uninfected hostiles trying to steal from and/or murder you. The bullets has considerable stopping power in piercing soft tissues, piercing 15mm into flesh. Think Mad Max meets SOCOM.) These cartridges are also easy to buy on the Internet or locally (I live in the South, I checked my local gun shop and of course they sell these cartridges*rolls eyes*).

2.Accuracy and Reliability This weapon is exceptionally accurate. Every review I've read (thank you again America for your awesomely loose gun restrictions) depicts this weapon as accurate to a fault. The weapon also has a low rate of failure: feeding, firing, extracting and ejecting reviews all are positive and have very few complaints.

3.Construction
The weapon is very modifiable and can be made to suit each user's individual needs.The weapon has a Picatinny Rail (pic above right)for an optical sight and other rails suitable for all kinds of goodies like lasers, lights, bipods etc---all extremely useful when living under the law of the gun in a post-apocalyptic atmosphere (imagine shooting zombies from 500 meters with a nice scope teehee--I always liked being a Sniper in Resident Evil 5). The buttstock is adjustable (I have short arms) and also folds for easy transport (or fighting your way through an undead mob in a confined space). The buttons and controls on the weapon are all conveniently placed and easily located (makes it easy to pick up and use, if you need to hand the weapon off to a less experienced user).  The weapon uses the same STANAG magazine that the M16 uses (among the roughly 30 other weapons that use this magazine style); this means it will be easier to accumulate ammunition as the weapon is not picky. No body likes a picky weapon.
4.Constructed in United States While I have no problem with buying foreign products when the world hasn't ended, what weapon I use while fighting through throngs of flesh-eating ghouls generally has something to do with where I get it. The SCAR is manufactured in Columbia, South Carolina which is very close to my home town. In the event of the dead rising it would be fairly reasonable to get to the plant and procure one of these weapons, if I so chose.
5. Light Weight The weapon is made from durable aluminum and polymer and weighs around 7 pounds (roughly the weight of one of those boxes of printer paper). This means that when you're schlepping it around your arms won't get tired from holding your weapon up for long periods and you can easy carry more ammunition with you as the added weight won't be taken up by your weapon. A gun without bullets is pretty useless against legions of the undead, at least en masse.

6.User friendly The civilian weapon is of ambidextrous design (lovely for all those left-handed zombie survivors out there) right down to the magazine release. It also has a very effective muzzle brake system (left) that cuts down on the recoil (which would knock my booty right on the ground). The low-recoil rate also cuts down on the shoulder fatigue generally associate with constant firing (imagine a brick being shoved into your shoulder over and over again. Ouch). Again, the design is made to be as convenient and idiot-proof as possible. All the buttons and bars are in places where almost anyone could figure out how to shoot it.

If and when the Apocalypse comes I would highly suggest this weapon become a part of your personal arsenal. If you want to run out and buy one now they run around 3000$ (they come with one 20 round magazine and a user's manual).
YAY!