[link|http://www.wilbursblog.blogspot.com/2003_05_11_wilbursblog_archive.html#94525234|Another tortured conspiracy theory begins to unravel]

Excerpt:

Now, a few firearms facts for the uninitiated.

American troops use three main infantry weapons.

First, there is the M16A2, a modern derivative of the old Vietnam era M16.

Secondly, there is the M4 carbine, a shortened version of the M16, often used by special forces troops.

Third, there is the Minimi Light Machine Gun.

None of these weapons can be converted from firing blanks to live, or back again, in a speedy manner.

Blank ammunition, when fired in these three weapons, is not powerful enough to force the weapons mechanism through its full cycle of operations. Because there is no live projectile, the build up of gas in the barrel is much less. When the weapon fires, there is no way that the mechanism will re-cock and chamber a fresh round.

Fire a blank round, and the weapon will stop firing after the first round is expended.

This would clearly be a daft situation when training with blank ammunition, so for training situations, a blank firing attachment (BFA) is used. The BFA consists of a cumbersome mechanical device bolted on to the end of the barrel. This restricts the amount of gas escaping, giving the weapon mechanism enough power to re-cock and re-chamber.

The BFA is awkward to get into place and even more difficult to remove. Frequently, it requires the use of pliers or some similar tool to affect its removal. After pro-longed firing with blank ammunition, the BFA is so hot that it must be left to cool before it can be removed.

This has a safety advantage in infantry training. It makes it much harder to confuse live ammunition with blank.

Now, back to the BBC report.

According to their witness, blanks where fired during the assault for dramatic effect.

If this where so, the American troops would be put in an awkward situation. Suppose, in the midst of this staged event, some Iraqi troops or Fedayeen irregulars appeared? How would they defend themselves? Clearly, converting the weapons from blank to live, in the heat of a battle, would be disastrous. It would take, at best, 2-3 minutes to remove a BFA, then vital more seconds in order to replace the belt or magazine of blank ammunition with live. In the dark, it would be very easy to get the blank and live rounds mixed up, too.

It is very hard to imagine how any Special Forces soldiers would agree to enter a combat zone with their weapons primed for blank ammunition.

Things are looking bad for the BBC\ufffds story, but it gets worse. Much worse.

The BFA is large and brightly coloured. It\ufffds a safety feature; a visible way of proving in training that no one is pointing live ammunition at you by mistake.

I don\ufffdt have the video footage of the rescue to hand, but I do recall seeing it. I didn\ufffdt see any weapons sporting BFAs.

I say:

I'm not an expert in the matter of shooting blanks. On rare occasions I aim and miss, sometimes I fire just to flush the quarry, sometimes I wing the target, frequently I hit it dead on. But I rarely shoot blanks, and never on purpose.

So I'll defer to the mopey embittered types here. What's it like to fire [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/board/search/?field_searchUser=23&field_searchSubject=&field_searchContent=seriously&field_searchSignature=&field_searchForum=47&field_boardid=1&submit_ok%3Amethod=Search|massive quantities of blanks]?