The AR-15’s once unfamiliar caliber — now called 5.56-millimeter in military service rather than .223 — also evolved into a military standard. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyIn this way, the M-16 and the Kalashnikov became a related pair, the assault rifle of the West springing into service as a response to the more widely distributed assault rifle of the East. It was an atypical rifle for its time, seemingly futuristic, and made partly with lightweight plastics and aluminum that traditionalists scorned. The rifle was capable, via a selector lever, of semiautomatic or automatic fire. The police have not said whether the weapon recovered in Orlando was capable of automatic fire.

Source: New York Times June 12, 2016 21:22 UTC