OK Gunners, why do you need a semi auto weapon.

[COLGATE4]

22. Assuming we're talking about legitimate use of a firearm

semi-automatic merely means that the firearm in question auto reloads without the necessity of additional action(s) on the part of the user. A non semi-automatic weapon requires the user to carry out some additional action in order to fire it a second (and more, successively) times. It's more an issue of the number of additional rounds that can be fired without having to manually reload.

An easy example of this is when the firearm is used for hunting. A semi-automatic rifle permits the user to sight in the target and then be able to fire more than one shot without the need to reload. When hunting deer for example, the hunter may often miss the first shot. Having the rifle reload itself without the need for anything additional permits the hunter to take a second shot while still remaining on target. With a non semi-automatic (i.e. single shot) rifle would require manually opening the breech, ejecting the spent shell and then closing the breech before trying to reacquire the target in the rifle's sights. Doing this causes the hunter to lose visual orientation of the target, greatly enhancing the possibility of missing the target.