Thank you Big Red and Kevin B for settling the issue. Peter Kokalis is an idiot after all, and no doubt one or both of you will soon forward your resume to Small Arms Review, so that he might be relieved of his duties and replaced by someone with unimpeachable credentials in the field.
I guess the SMG is a worthless and obsolete item that has long been superseded by short barrel assault rifles. My recollection is that the XM177 came out in around 1967. Funny how the MP5 SMG continued in production since that date. Apparently, not everyone agreed with the two of you that it was obsolete. No doubt that is due to the large number of fools in this world, and the limited number of people who have read the RCMP and FBI reports you recite in your favor.
In retrospect, look at those buffoons in the British SAS during the Embassy Siege in London, 1980. Short barreled assault rifles had been out for decades, and yet the losers in the SAS chose to use MP5 SMGs to storm the embassy. Perhaps it was because the SAS commandoes had failed to “hit the gym or the ice cream stand at the DFAC to put on some weight.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne3ClrcuW30&feature=related
I know a quick way to resolve this issue once and for all. If Kevin B and Big Red would forward the video of their most recent hostage rescue to Utube, then special forces communities of the world will swap their MP5s for M4s and we can live happily ever after. And their will be no need for me to hurt anyone’s feeling again.
One might think that Kokalis and others had a point in that for instinctive, close quarter combat, where precise aim is either not possible or not practical, short controlled bursts of pistol ammunition makes it easier to make hits on multiple targets.
I recall Kokalis and others set up a typical room clearing exercise, where shooters ran through an obstacle course, firing at targets as they went, and then stopped to engage multiple targets at close range. For this type of work, no short barrel assault rifle could compete with an SMG, simply because recovery time between bursts was too great for the AR. And among the SMG’s, no SMG could beat the Sterling for instinctive shooting while on the run. It was ideal for room clearing. Even from the open bolt, the Sterling could be fired from the hip in short bursts that often stitched the target with multiple hits. This was impossible with a short AR, as the longer weapon was harder to fire instinctively from the hip, and subsequent rounds in the bursts went all over hells creation, due to the effects of recoil.
Finally, I do apologize to Big Red, and all the other members of the Special Forces community serving in Iraq. My thinking was that hardened veterans serving in a combat zone could stand the sort of rough language I dispensed. Sorry, I guess under that tough exterior, you combat soldiers have feelings too. I certainly meant no disrespect to you and your commando friends.
BB