Army's Rifles Are Going Off When They Shouldn't

Some of the Army's rifles appear to have a malfunction that causes them to fire when they aren't supposed to, causing the service to review all of its rifles to make sure they are functioning properly.

It all started with a video recorded by a soldier showing an M4A1 carbine firing when it shouldn't have. The video shows the rifle's selector switch between "semi" and "auto" fire modes. The soldier squeezes the trigger, but the rifle does not fire. Once the soldier moves to auto, the weapon discharges a round.

The M4A1 featured in the video was one of several carbines converted from the original M4 model, which offered a three-round burst instead of automatic fire. The conversions were part of the Army's Product Improvement Program, which added a heavier barrel and ambidextrous controls in addition to fully automatic fire.

Officials at U.S. Army Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM) believe the issue goes beyond the converted weapons, however, so it has instituted a new policy requiring all M4 and M16 series rifles to be checked for the issue within 10 days of April 18 or prior to live fire. So far, approximately 50,000 weapons have been checked with a failure rate of about 6 percent, according to Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command.  (Circa, June 5, 2018)