3 ms·

My research might be wrong here, but I thought the 2nd amendment was passed in 1791, whereas Mannlicher didn't design the first successful semi-automatic rifle

• deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
• microcolonel 9y ago
  There was also the Kalthoff repeater[0], which is thought to have been used in two conflicts in the mid 1600s, and designed/manufactured around that time. These were demonstrated and documented at least a hundred years before the second amendment was drafted, along with copies and demonstrations of similar mechanisms. The only question might be whether they could be considered "semi-automatic". In that sense I guess they're about as automatic as double-action revolvers. I think I'm wrong in calling them semi-automatic then, but there is little practical difference between DA revolvers and semi-automatic firearms, except that one has a chamber for each cartridge. The Kalthoff mechanism is a bit more confusing with these definitions, since it uses a single chamber, but has separate magazines for charge and bullet, but reloads, cocks, and fires through a single manual action. I should probably have said self-cocking repeaters. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalthoff_repeater https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalthoff_repeater