Armalite Rifle Lyrics

Lyric discussion by chuxvom 

Cover art for Armalite Rifle lyrics by Gang of Four

I think what Suburban kids says about the lyrics applies to the album version too.

The Armalite in the song is almost certainly the AR-18 which was chambered for the 5.56mm round, the design of this round is that it undergoes 'yaw' (i.e. tumbling) and fragmentation after impact. Even it 'just' gets you in the arm the bullet has the potential to scramble your insides as it is likely to perforate the limb and carry on yawing/fragmenting through the torso. Damage.

I think you mean AR15. And the nonsense about the bullets tumbling, hitting you in the arm of leg, and then proceeding to "scramble your insides" is a myth. It comes from early version of the rifle which were first used widely in Vietnam when they began replacing the M14. These early examples carried a 1:14 bbl (barrel) twist, meaning the bullet would spin one full rotation at 14" down the bbl. The standard M16 bbl was and is 16", meaning the bullet would only fully spin one time before it left the bbl. This is not nearly enough spin...