The Supreme Court on Monday turned away an appeal by a group of gun rights advocates seeking to overturn Maryland’s ban on assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines under the Second Amendment.
The decision, a major win for gun safety advocates, leaves in place a ruling by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals which ruled that the state may constitutionally prohibit sale and possession of the weapons.
The state legislation, enacted in 2013 after the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, specifically targets the AR-15 – the most popular rifle in America with 20-30 million in circulation. They are legal in 41 of the 50 states.
Semi-automatic is a specific type of action where after firing, the bolt removes the spent case and chambers the next round without further manual input from the operator as would be required in lever actions, bolt actions, etc.
Well, semi-automatic also interrupts the action so it only gives one shot per trigger pull, versus burst mechanisms or fully automatic.
So as for what is not a semi-automatic? Any gun requiring manual operation to clear the spent case and chamber a new round or can fire more than one round per trigger pull.