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Very close to that.
Except they came extra prepared.

Buying assault weapons without background checks: YES.

You mean assualt rifles? Sure, you can buy them illegally without a background check from the local gunrunner/gang member for a couple grand. Or spend about $20k on the gun and a couple k on the tax stamp and Class III license. Oh, wait, you meant the scary black guns with the pistol grips and plastic furniture. Because something like this is perfectly fine, but add a Tapco stock to it and you might as well be carry the next cloest thing to a nuke the way some poeple act.

While I do feel firearms can be works of art, this plastic piece of crap is not art. A Kentucky rifle is art(the smooth lines, the metal plates); an antique engraved firearm is art(some of those old engravings are amazing); hell, even an AK-47 is in my opinion art, in a mechanical/engineering sense(it's simplicity of use, the beatings they can take and still operate). But a plastic gun that falls apart after a few shots? They might as well include a Nambu type 94 in their exhibit. They can call it "How not to design firearms".

You're probably out of luck on the first one. The second one exists though: MBA Gyrojet

.

Yeah, or you could just use captive-piston ammo and get gun-like rather than pop-gun-like performance.

And to top it all off, the blaster rifle carried by Chewbacca on the Death Star is essentially an MG-42 and the stormtrooper blasters were modified Sterling submachine guns http://world.guns.ru/smg/brit/sterling-l2-l34-e.html , completely down to the folding stock. The Rebel rifles from Episode 4 look to be based off STG-44s. And the rebel blaster pistols look similar to the Nambu type 14 or the Roth 1907.

And sorry, to reply to myself, but I think the XZ-38 looks nothing like the Luger. http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hg/de/luger-parabellum-e.html

Yep, it's based on the Mauser C-96. http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hg/de/mauser-c-96-e.html

abot rounds on tanks already work in a similar way:

check our the steyr AMR, it has been done before in rifle form. semi-auto too.

If he did, I'd find him and beat him for ruining something that is one of the best examples of early semi-automatic handguns. http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hg90-e.htm

In places like that, people still do open businesses, so everyone must be insane. Because it couldn't be possible that you are wrong.

I used to live in such a society. Rules like that force the economy underground, and all settlements between businessmen are done in hard, cold cash. Feel free to translate with Google if you can't read it.

And once you are on that path, your business contracts are all outside of legal protection. What will protect you? Only this. Do you want to live in such a world? Because that's what happens when laws are way beyond unreasonable.

I haven't seen anything about capital gains in there, and that's separate from salary now.

I do not know what the G*P wanted to tax at 90%. But we know that most people don't earn $5M salaries every year; however companies are bought and sold all the time. If you let the government to take an inch (90% of the ordinary income) it will take a mile (90% of capital gains) and you can't do anything because you opened the door to this development.

Don't sell the company.

And when you have an appendicitis don't go for a surgery. That makes just as much sense as what you proposed. The company that you built may have great technology, but no means to make it into a product. A large company may have means to make products, but no ideas. That's usually when you sell and they buy. It's not like people sell companies on a whim. And there are tons of other reasons to sell too.

Have the trust pay him out slowly, rather than a lump sum

Tons of problems with that. To begin with, you have a good chance of dying from old age before all the money is paid. Or another - you are denied use of the money that is rightfully yours. You can't buy a house, for example. Or another - who knows what will happen with the money in the future (inflation, that's what.)

All of these are just workarounds, dancing around the elephant in the room. And the elephant is the right of the government to take your money. Granted, the government needs to be paid for the services that it provided you to be able to earn your profit; you weren't conquered by New Zealand, you weren't killed by gangs, you didn't die from food poisoning. But that's a much smaller sum than what the government tries to take. The more it takes, the less is there to take.

> it does look like a whole lot like a Barrett .50 sniper rifle

Maybe if you look at it upside down with an astigmatism. But it is similar to the French GIAT FAMAS rifle or the canceled H&K XM8.

The Seattle area was also somewhat sensitized by a guy closed down I-5 last week after firing shots from "an AK-47-style rifle." I find it interesting that the normally anti evil assault weapons Seattle Times made the distinction that it was not an actual (i.e. full automatic capable) AK-47.

Of course, Seattle is not exactly 2nd Amendment friendly under the best of circumstances.

The NRA called. They say you're not allowed to be a pro-gun fanatic unless you actually know something about guns.

Politicians want to ban them because they look intimidating next to, say, a standard bolt-action Ruger 30.06.

No, they want to ban them because they can easily be retrofitted to full auto. Hard to do with a bolt-action rifle.

This whole business of people regurgitating bullshit they heard on talk radio is really out of hand. It was bad enough when people just used bad logic to support their prejudices. Now they're just reciting factoids that don't stand up under even momentary scrutiny.

But maybe that's a good thing. Now that attack politics has gone totally brain dead, people will realize how pointless it is, and we'll go back to having actual arguments.

Actually, the Halo sniper rifle is virtually identical to the South African NTW-20. http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn55-e.htm

It looks like a South African rifle actually, so neither Warsaw Pact nor NATO.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denel_NTW-20
http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn55-e.htm

It doesn't look like a weapon to me. It looks like a camera with a boat paddle attached to it. If a photographer were taking a picture of you, all that you'd notice would be the camera on the bipod.

It probably won't be mistaken for a rifle, but it could easily be mistaken for a poorly conceived improvised grenade launcher. It has the same general form as several non-improvised models, including the China Lake NATIC, M79, and HK69.

It doesn't look like a weapon to me. It looks like a camera with a boat paddle attached to it. If a photographer were taking a picture of you, all that you'd notice would be the camera on the bipod.

It probably won't be mistaken for a rifle, but it could easily be mistaken for a poorly conceived improvised grenade launcher. It has the same general form as several non-improvised models, including the China Lake NATIC, M79, and HK69.

Don't forget the Pancor Jackhammer, an awesome real life prototype shotgun that never saw production. :)

... i'm not sure what weapon you're referring to with a 7.92mm slug, but China's current service rifle QBZ-95 is 5.8mm. The current service pistol from what i'm aware is the QSZ-92 and is 5.8mm, but is also found in 9mm variety.

Hell, either way this guy is toast! We are just figuring out what size hole will be in his head :-)

According to two sources I found, the AK-47 also owes some design principles to earlier American rifle designs. Just like many inventions, its success built on lessons learned from previous designs. It's not surprising that many have thought the AK-47 was derived from the MP-44, since they look almost identical superficially.

More directly referencing the Mauser.

yes, here's one http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn20-e.htm and at a mere 3 kilos it is quite light as well.

Yes, a regular AK-74 does not fire NATO ammo. There are however AK like rifles firing NATO ammo. Such as the AK-101, IMI Galil or the Valmek Sako.

Yes, a regular AK-74 does not fire NATO ammo. There are however AK like rifles firing NATO ammo. Such as the AK-101, IMI Galil or the Valmek Sako.

Yes, a regular AK-74 does not fire NATO ammo. There are however AK like rifles firing NATO ammo. Such as the AK-101, IMI Galil or the Valmek Sako.

The longest range sniper rifles I ever heard of, like a WWII Mauser or a modern Dragunov SVD, have an effective range of about 1300 meters, somewhat short of a mile.

Tiny tiny nitpick: FN FNC not FN FAL.

minor quibble: your assessment of the suppressor situation with revolvers is essentially correct (for suppression, exhaust gases must be controlled, and revolvers don't allow that), but is a false dilemma. One can escape between the horns of the dilemma by eleminating exhaust gases.

"There are no silencers for (military) sniper rifles."

Ignorant of the VSS?
http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn20-e.htm

Range against body armoured targets is 300-400m with the SP-6 round.
Which is more than enough for anti-personal use.

It was used against the rebels/insurgents/freedom fighters in Chechnya, where it used to scare them silly, however quite a few were taken and could be anywhere now. Ammunition would be the biggest problem, but if you give it to your best sniper, kill count is meaningless as it's best used to demoralise opposing troops.

If you fired this on a typical city street with background noise, you wouldn't hear it at all. Since it is semi-auto, you could do a lot of damage before anyone noticed.

...since a sniper can operate at further than 3000feet.
http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn02-e.htm

From all the Discovery and TLC I've been watching, it seems to be between 1500 and 2000 YARDS.
So first thing the sniper does is shoot the robot a couple times.

It's actually 40 inches (1016 mm) long.

This thing is so defeatable that it's likely to never be useful. The SK government will spend millions on them, deploy them, and the NKs will circumvent them with minimal effort.

1.) Paintballs. If the cameras can't see, the targeting software is crippled.

2.) One of these could render the barrel unfireable from beyond the autogun's effective range. It could probably also damage the optical sensor or mar it's lens enough to render it useless.

3.) Rectangular metal shields -- If the software is trained to not shoot at trees, make yourself look like a (slow moving) tree. The recognition software is probably focusing on the gangly and flapping arms and legs we humans have. If one hides his arms and legs, one will not get shot.

4.) Blind the sensors. Focus enough visible and infrared light on the sensors to render them useless.

OK, here are the links so they can arrest us all:

http://www.disastercenter.com/terror/

http://www.capricorn.org/~akira/home/terror.html

www.thedisease.net/arcana/nbc/chemical/Mujahideen_ Poisons.pdf

http://kalashnikov.guns.ru/manual/english/svd/

Seriously, these things have been around for a VERY long time. Perhaps when a book comes out that makes it easy enough for any angry 14 year old kid to bring a city or state to its knees, maybe, but even then I doubt it. OK, so if you have a terrorist who is hell bent on doing something, maybe these books can be helpful to them. But being illegal? Lets get real here.

Be honest, how many of us reading this could write out much better terrorist textbooks if we were to put our mind to it? I know I could, and I am betting that most of us reading this could. As they stand these texts are very poorly thought out, very poorly designed, and not really designed to impliment. That makes them much less dangerous than say a driving manual.

Some reading material for you all:

The Al Qaeda Manual: http://www.disastercenter.com/terror/
The Terrorist's Handbook: http://www.totse.com/en/bad_ideas/irresponsible_ac tivities/168593.html
The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook: http://www.thedisease.net/arcana/nbc/chemical/Muja hideen_Poisons.pdf
The Dragunov Sniper Rifle Technical Description and Service Manual: http://kalashnikov.guns.ru/manual/english/svd/

Now don't go reading this stuff and getting yourself arrested.

I'm sure a handful of other people are posting it as I'm writing this, but here's a link to the Mujahideen Poisons handbook.

Also, the Al-Qaeda Manual (interestingly, this was distributed by the FBI)

The Dragunov sniper rifle manual

No luck searching for the RPG & Firearms handbook.

Quick google on the list goes:

al-Qaeda Manual = http://www.disastercenter.com/terror/
The Terrorists Handbook = http://www.capricorn.org/~akira/home/terror.html
The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook = http://www.thedisease.net/arcana/nbc/chemical/Muja hideen_Poisons.pdf
Dragunov sniper rifle = http://kalashnikov.guns.ru/manual/english/svd/

and....

RPG = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_propelled_gren ade

I didn't find the handbook though.

The poisons one is quite interesting. Has a poison to make from horse excrement...

Who decides what's offensive or adult in nature? Is guns.ru adult in nature? Are news reports about massacres in Darfur adult or offensive? What about websites reviewing video games?

Frankly, I don't like the idea of anyone controlling what my kids see but me. A human being can only recognize something once its been shown or described to them. If you prevent kids from seeing "bad" things, how can they know such things are bad?

Obviously a little conflicted young fundamentalist is:
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This homie is doing is part to go against stereotypes
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Dirty girl...
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Aside from the behind-the-scenes type stuff, military technology is designed to be simple to use. I hate to make the comparison (Especially with the story about the Japanese investigating computer games) but using some of the more complicated weapons systems is now as easy as playing a computer game. For instance, piloting a helicopter might be hard, but both the apache and the comanche prototype (that was supposedly cancelled - not sure whether to believe that or not, but helis are somewhat deprecated since the proliferation of man-fired rockets) use a cannon that is aimed based on where the pilot turns their head, and which use advanced but automatic optics to allow the pilot to have a view through the opaque portions of the craft, again, simply by looking in that direction. The OICW/M29 is definitely going to be designed to be as easy to use as possible, but it's a fairly sophisticated computer system mated to a short carbine assault rifle with a 20mm cannon/grenade launcher.

The target acquisition / fire control system (TA/FCS) is the most expensive and complicated unit of the whole system, since it must combine day and night vision capabilities, laser rangefinding unit, ballistic computer and various interfaces to the grenade launcher and external systems. It is used to find the targets in any light and weather conditions, determine the range to the target, calculate and display the aiming data, so the grenade or bullet could be fired to the desired point of impact, and then supply the data to the grenade launcher, so the range could be preset into the grenade fuse. In the case of damage to the TA/FCS the 20mm grenade launcher still can be used in the direct impact mode, as well as the rifle part of the system.
(http://world.guns.ru/assault/as40-e.htm)

It does a hell of a lot, it's definitely to be considered "high tech", but you think they're going to make it hard to use?

uh, for the misinformed:
7.62 NATO == .308 winchester == 7.62x51 != 7.62x39 (the AK round)
http://kalashnikov.guns.ru/models/ka50.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.62_x_51_mm

I'm pretty sure the Soviets were not a part of NATO (being a Warsaw Pact nation) when the 7.62 round was developed, hence they wouldn't adopt it as standard issue. 7.62x39 is much more akin to a 5.56 NATO/.223 round because of the shorter length of the cartridge.

You sound like you know enough about this stuff that you should know the difference.

Home defense?!? I suppose if your home is in the middle of a battlefield.

The M2 is a retired weapon, and pretty much has been since the 60s.

I don't know why the M2 is coming up in this thread about rifles, since it is a .50 cal machine gun. Although initially adapted for infantry use in 1921 (from an earlier aircraft weapon), derivatives of ma deuce are still in service today.

See http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg04-e.htm for details.

God, +5 informative for this crap?

Crap item 1:
The modern M16 fires a 5.56x45mm NATO round, while the previous generation (original AR15 platform) used a .223 caliber Remington round. The NATO round is a very standard round used in quite a few weapons. The newest weapon in wide use is actually the M4, which is also based on the AR15 platform.
A simple Google of "5.56mm" returns the 5.56mm FAQ as the third hit. This gives some detailed history on the evolution of the 5.56mm round, and shows that the above quote is not accurate.
I also found an interesting advisory on using 5.56mm ammunition in a rifle chambered for .223 Remington.

Crap item 2:
The older 7.62mm NATO round was used in a lot of weapons, including the M14, M60, Kar-98k, and the Winchester model 70. It was very popular, as well.
If by "Kar-98k" you mean the Mauser 98K, its actually chambered for the 8mm Mauser round, which is *not* 7.62mm.

Crap item 3:
The M16 isn't designed to maim, but they are easy to do this with. They are rather accurate, have a good range, and don't do full auto.
The last statement is accurate only for the M16A1E1, M16A2 and M16A4. The M16, M16A1, and M16A3 all have fully automatic capability. See this for more detail.

Yeah, my karma is bad, so its unlikely this post will get modded up, but at least I'm not providing ass-data.

kybred

I don't even know where to begin here, let's go line by line:

I'm not sure I believe that - the rounds currently deployed to the US Army for their M16s are intended to tear an opponent apart, since an opponent who dies instantly can't continue to fight injured, or worse, charge and set off a bomb.

No, M855 - used by the M16A2 and up (A3, A4), is built to shatter after passing 4" of flesh, and does this quite well provided the weapon firing the round has a 16" barrel. Weapons with shorter barrels have less time over which to induce force upon the projectile thus resulting in a lower muzzle velocity and less fragmentation. This is one of the complaints about the M4 (14") and Colt Commando (11")

Here is an image of what M855 does within a gel block that has the same consistency as muscle tissue:
M855 wound cross-section

They're also built to knock the target off their feet to prevent a charging enemy.

Again this is incorrect. No round short of .50 BMG (used by .50cal sniper rifles and machineguns) is really capable of knocking a man over, especially not a charging one. Here is a list of the most common types of modern rifle ammunition and their kinetic energy - I'll leave the math as an exercise to the reader, but none of these would knock a 150lb. man running at 10mph over backwards, or even begin to. Bear in mind that unlike M855 (5.56x45mm) most of the higher-power rounds pass through the target completely without imparting the lion's share of their kinetic energy. Knockdown is due to tissue trauma and pain, if anything, and is rarely a factor when shooting an opponent.

M-16 rounds are nasty - they have a hollowed out section on one side so that upon a collision, they drastically change shape. This causes them to travel through the body with an increased angular velocity spinning the way though the targets internals

This is vaguely correct but misleading. The small ring in the side of an M855 bullet that exists where the bullet protrodues from the neck of the cartridge does induce a tumbling motion, but upon yawing 90 degrees within the flesh of the target the bullet typically shatters with at less 50% of the bullet mass fragmenting. There reason for this is not to spin the bullet through the target's internals, but rather to create a larger internal surface area to the wound itself, in order to maximize bleeding. The tissue trauma and kinetic energy doctrines of wound theory are largely ignore by 5.56x45mm largely because of the desire to incapacitate rather than kill targets precisely because each soldier wounded means two people busied (the soldier and a doctor/nurse/rescuer). The bullet that most closely describes what you're saying is the 5.45x39mm round fired in the AK-74, the successor to the AK-47. The Afghans in the 80s referred to them as 'poison bullets' for this reason.

If you've ever seen a target dummy shot with an M-16 round, the hole going in is the size you'd expect it to be - you can fit your hand in the hole on the other side. People who get shot in the arms with an M-16 will lose the arm, go into shock (and thus completely exit the battle) and almost certainly die shortly thereafter.

This is, again, garbage. The large holes are due to fragmentation, not tumbling, and the shock is induced by the maximized blood loss, not straight tissue trauma. I don't know who told you the above but they don't know the first thing about wound theory.

Keep in mind that the United States and European armies are the only military forces that don't use disposable regiments and therefor have large support structures for injured troops. The Chinese army is beginning to move this direction, but historically have no problem with wars of attrition.

That's true enough. Chinese firearms have historically been utter shit.

--Ryvar

False. The M4 has received a fabulous reception from line users because of its compact nature. It, along with the Canadian-made Diemaco clones, is the close-quarters weapon of choice for Western armies. The biggest complaint about the M4 is the 5.56mm round has anemic penetration when fired from the short barrel of the M4; it penetrates less than a 9mm. Perversely, this complaint is actually a virtue for close-quarters fighting, where overpenetration is a major concern.

False. Apparently, the M4 has quite a few complaints lately. 1) As you mentioned, the range is significantly reduced, thanks to the short barrel. 2) The barrel and forend rapidly overheat. 3) The shortened barrel increases the rate of fire, decreasing reliability.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as17-e.htm

The USMC has abandoned the HK MP5N in favor of the M4 SOPMOD system.

I don't know about this, but the MP5 is a submachine gun, not an assault rifle like the M4. They aren't in the same class.

The XM8 is currently a hotly-contested weapon, and several educated observers don't think the XM8 has much chance of acceptance.

From what I've read, the XM8 was getting positive feedback as of mid-2004.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as61-e.htm

The German army abandoned the (bullpup) G11 weapons system for the (conventional) G36 weapons system.

The G11 fired caseless ammunition, and never got very far past the prototype stage into actual use. This is probably due to its exotic ammunition and high cost rather than its bullpup configuration.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as42-e.htm

The British have re-equipped their paratroops away from the (bullpupped) SA80 and towards the Diemaco clone of the M4.

Where'd you read this? From what I've read, the problem with the SA80 is that it's flimsy and has shoddy quality. Again, not a problem with the bullpup configuration. But also, what I've read says the MoD is sticking to this weapon despite its obvious flaws.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as22-e.htm

French Foreign Legionnaires are abandoning the (bullpupped) FAMAS for the M4.

Any sources for this? From what I read, the FAMAS is a respected weapon.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as21-e.htm

False. The M4 has received a fabulous reception from line users because of its compact nature. It, along with the Canadian-made Diemaco clones, is the close-quarters weapon of choice for Western armies. The biggest complaint about the M4 is the 5.56mm round has anemic penetration when fired from the short barrel of the M4; it penetrates less than a 9mm. Perversely, this complaint is actually a virtue for close-quarters fighting, where overpenetration is a major concern.

False. Apparently, the M4 has quite a few complaints lately. 1) As you mentioned, the range is significantly reduced, thanks to the short barrel. 2) The barrel and forend rapidly overheat. 3) The shortened barrel increases the rate of fire, decreasing reliability.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as17-e.htm

The USMC has abandoned the HK MP5N in favor of the M4 SOPMOD system.

I don't know about this, but the MP5 is a submachine gun, not an assault rifle like the M4. They aren't in the same class.

The XM8 is currently a hotly-contested weapon, and several educated observers don't think the XM8 has much chance of acceptance.

From what I've read, the XM8 was getting positive feedback as of mid-2004.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as61-e.htm

The German army abandoned the (bullpup) G11 weapons system for the (conventional) G36 weapons system.

The G11 fired caseless ammunition, and never got very far past the prototype stage into actual use. This is probably due to its exotic ammunition and high cost rather than its bullpup configuration.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as42-e.htm

The British have re-equipped their paratroops away from the (bullpupped) SA80 and towards the Diemaco clone of the M4.

Where'd you read this? From what I've read, the problem with the SA80 is that it's flimsy and has shoddy quality. Again, not a problem with the bullpup configuration. But also, what I've read says the MoD is sticking to this weapon despite its obvious flaws.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as22-e.htm

French Foreign Legionnaires are abandoning the (bullpupped) FAMAS for the M4.

Any sources for this? From what I read, the FAMAS is a respected weapon.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as21-e.htm

False. The M4 has received a fabulous reception from line users because of its compact nature. It, along with the Canadian-made Diemaco clones, is the close-quarters weapon of choice for Western armies. The biggest complaint about the M4 is the 5.56mm round has anemic penetration when fired from the short barrel of the M4; it penetrates less than a 9mm. Perversely, this complaint is actually a virtue for close-quarters fighting, where overpenetration is a major concern.

False. Apparently, the M4 has quite a few complaints lately. 1) As you mentioned, the range is significantly reduced, thanks to the short barrel. 2) The barrel and forend rapidly overheat. 3) The shortened barrel increases the rate of fire, decreasing reliability.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as17-e.htm

The USMC has abandoned the HK MP5N in favor of the M4 SOPMOD system.

I don't know about this, but the MP5 is a submachine gun, not an assault rifle like the M4. They aren't in the same class.

The XM8 is currently a hotly-contested weapon, and several educated observers don't think the XM8 has much chance of acceptance.

From what I've read, the XM8 was getting positive feedback as of mid-2004.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as61-e.htm

The German army abandoned the (bullpup) G11 weapons system for the (conventional) G36 weapons system.

The G11 fired caseless ammunition, and never got very far past the prototype stage into actual use. This is probably due to its exotic ammunition and high cost rather than its bullpup configuration.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as42-e.htm

The British have re-equipped their paratroops away from the (bullpupped) SA80 and towards the Diemaco clone of the M4.

Where'd you read this? From what I've read, the problem with the SA80 is that it's flimsy and has shoddy quality. Again, not a problem with the bullpup configuration. But also, what I've read says the MoD is sticking to this weapon despite its obvious flaws.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as22-e.htm

French Foreign Legionnaires are abandoning the (bullpupped) FAMAS for the M4.

Any sources for this? From what I read, the FAMAS is a respected weapon.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as21-e.htm

False. The M4 has received a fabulous reception from line users because of its compact nature. It, along with the Canadian-made Diemaco clones, is the close-quarters weapon of choice for Western armies. The biggest complaint about the M4 is the 5.56mm round has anemic penetration when fired from the short barrel of the M4; it penetrates less than a 9mm. Perversely, this complaint is actually a virtue for close-quarters fighting, where overpenetration is a major concern.

False. Apparently, the M4 has quite a few complaints lately. 1) As you mentioned, the range is significantly reduced, thanks to the short barrel. 2) The barrel and forend rapidly overheat. 3) The shortened barrel increases the rate of fire, decreasing reliability.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as17-e.htm

The USMC has abandoned the HK MP5N in favor of the M4 SOPMOD system.

I don't know about this, but the MP5 is a submachine gun, not an assault rifle like the M4. They aren't in the same class.

The XM8 is currently a hotly-contested weapon, and several educated observers don't think the XM8 has much chance of acceptance.

From what I've read, the XM8 was getting positive feedback as of mid-2004.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as61-e.htm

The German army abandoned the (bullpup) G11 weapons system for the (conventional) G36 weapons system.

The G11 fired caseless ammunition, and never got very far past the prototype stage into actual use. This is probably due to its exotic ammunition and high cost rather than its bullpup configuration.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as42-e.htm

The British have re-equipped their paratroops away from the (bullpupped) SA80 and towards the Diemaco clone of the M4.

Where'd you read this? From what I've read, the problem with the SA80 is that it's flimsy and has shoddy quality. Again, not a problem with the bullpup configuration. But also, what I've read says the MoD is sticking to this weapon despite its obvious flaws.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as22-e.htm

French Foreign Legionnaires are abandoning the (bullpupped) FAMAS for the M4.

Any sources for this? From what I read, the FAMAS is a respected weapon.
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as21-e.htm