Things I did not know about firearms, vol. CXI

I knew that the UK made something like 19 Million Lee-Enfield rifles, so they were found everywhere.  I also knew that there was a terrible shortage of automatic weapons in the British Army after Dunkerque.  What I did not know is that there were several designs that converted the SMLE rifle into full automatic.

The Rieder conversion kit could be installed with simple tools and converted the rifle into a full automatic weapon.  You could use either the standard 10 round .303 magazine or the 30 round magazine used with the Bren.

And the Kiwis did a full re-manufacturing, turning a couple thousand Enfields into Charlton Automatic Rifles.

Pretty ingenious, and a meditation on how effective gun control can ever be.