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Game Changer: America's most advanced weapons

The most incredible weapons in the U.S. military arsenal.

The Auto Assault-12 (AA-12), originally designed and known as the Atchisson Assault Shotgun, is a shotgun developed in 1972 by Maxwell Atchisson. The most prominent feature is reduced recoil. The current 2005 version has been developed over 18 years since the patent was sold to Military Police Systems, Inc. The original design was the basis of several later weapons, including the USAS-12 combat shotgun. The weapon is fully automatic only but fires at a rate of 300 rounds per minute, making it possible to fire one round at a time with brief trigger pulls. It is fed from either an 8-shell box magazine, or a 20- or 32-shell drum magazine. The AA-12 can use different types of 3" 12-gauge ammunition such as buckshot, slugs, or less-than-lethal rubber stun batons. It can also use high-explosive rounds, essentially becoming a man-portable automatic grenade launcher or autocannon.
The Auto Assault-12 (AA-12), originally designed and known as the Atchisson Assault Shotgun, is a shotgun developed in 1972 by Maxwell Atchisson. The most prominent feature is reduced recoil. The current 2005 version has been developed over 18 years since the patent was sold to Military Police Systems, Inc. The original design was the basis of several later weapons, including the USAS-12 combat shotgun. The weapon is fully automatic only but fires at a rate of 300 rounds per minute, making it possible to fire one round at a time with brief trigger pulls. It is fed from either an 8-shell box magazine, or a 20- or 32-shell drum magazine. The AA-12 can use different types of 3" 12-gauge ammunition such as buckshot, slugs, or less-than-lethal rubber stun batons. It can also use high-explosive rounds, essentially becoming a man-portable automatic grenade launcher or autocannon.

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Top 10 handguns in the U.S.

The most prolific makes of handguns manufactured in the U.S., based on production statistics provided to ATF.