I didn't realize that any national army didn't trust it's infantrymen
with the option of full auto fire.

Nav wrote:
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/FN%20FAL

"The British adopted their own variant of the FAL
.... The UK variant, and many others, is
semi-automatic only."

Now how do you explain that? It would seem to agree with my recollection
would it not?

I'd explain it by saying that you have only seen one particular type of
FN-FAL. I didn't know about it, therefor I learned something. I'm still
a bit surprised that a standard issue infantry weapon would be
single-fire only. That would really limit firepower.

Now, are you saying there is no such a thing as a gas-operated
auto-loader with a selectable 3 round burst? I don't know if the FAL
ever had that option, but some FN SLRs based on the same technology did.
There are several FN-FAL versions that had semi or full auto.

DSK