>why does every military in the world issue select fire rifles? Because suppressing the enemy's fire and maneuver through volume of fire while conducting your own is a basic principal of infantry tactics with every military in the world. Unlike the vast majority of police uses of deadly force, or civilian self defense incidents, in military operations it is simply an accepted fact that the vast majority of the small arms rounds fired in combat will miss their intended targets because they are being fired to keep the enemy's head down so that they can't shoot while your team is moving to a position of tactical advantage. Hence the term "cover by fire". There is a direct correlation between the perceived intensity of incoming fire and the degree of suppression. In other words, the more bullets you believe are striking in and around the spot where you have been trying to pop your head up to peek and/or shoot, the less like you are to do it. And while you've got your head down trying not to get shot, one of his friends crawls up and drops Mr. M67 into your hole with you. And after Mr. Grenade's pin has been pulled, he is no longer your friend. Even the military doesn't make that much use of full-auto in select-fire rifles. It just goes through ammo too fast. More misses per minute. The basic load for a US infantry soldier is only seven 30 round magazines. The M16/M4 goes through ammo at a cyclic rate of about 700 rounds per minute. Do the math. If you burn through all your ammo in the first couple minutes of a gunfight, the enemy is just gonna stroll over and peel your wig back. This is why the job of suppressive fires falls primarily to the belt-fed weapons like the M249 and the M240. They are made for sustained suppression.