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Originally Posted by Anormalguy
Very few people, relatively speaking, own automatic weapons. Most self-feeding pistols, shotguns, rifles, etc., are semi-automatic (you have to release the trigger & then squeeze it again to get the next round to fire).
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You're actually wrong here, and the term has been used correctly all thread--I'm only pointing it out because you tried to say that others were wrong. Automatic refers to the fact that you can just pull the trigger over and over without having to manually cycle the action. You are thinking of 'fully automatic' (as opposed to 'semi-automatic'), but both are examples of automatic designs--automatic by itself just means you don't have to do anything to advance a new cartridge.
So quoth wikipedia:
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An automatic firearm is a firearm that automatically extracts and ejects the fired cartridge case, and loads a new case, usually through the energy of the fired round. The term can be used to refer to semi-automatic firearms, which fire one shot per pull of the trigger, or fully automatic firearms, which will continue to load and fire ammunition until the trigger (or other activating device) is released or until the ammunition is exhausted. An "automatic pistol" or an "automatic shotgun" generally refers to a semi-automatic design, while "automatic rifle" more often means a fully automatic or selective fire design.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_firearm