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These weapons made the battlefield as deadly as it is today. Here's What You Need to Know: The Sturmgewehr 44, AK-47, M16, MG34/42 Machine Gun, and M1 Garland redefined infantry combat over the course of the past century. The field of military small arms is an underappreciated but important one. Although not as sexy as nuclear weapons, fighter jets or tanks, battle rifles, assault rifles, and machine guns have killed far more people and been involved in the forced transfer of more real estate than any other weapon—particularly in the so-called Third World. Over the past eighty years, severa...

How on Earth were these allowed to make it to the battlefield? Military rifles were for decades the primary weapon of an army. Wielded by the largest fighting branch, the infantry, rifles were used in both attack and defense. Because of their importance and the slow march of technological innovation, rifles were upgraded conservatively, with some armies, such as the German and British armies, using the same rifle for fifty years or more. Rifles simply had to work, and it was better to stick with an older one that was a sure thing than a newer rifle that was less than perfectly reliable.

Stranger and it was a mistake or an accident, or you develop a list of people that might have a reason to have shot him. >> reporter: to police, it didn't look random. nothing was taken. the killer struck with precision accuracy and got clean away. but there was something that intrigued detective voth that night. it was a clue they found in bill mclaughlin's closet. >> we do a search of the house with the permission of kevin. we're told there are weapons in the closet upstairs. when you come across that many weapons, it becomes surprising. >> reporter: bill was an avid gun collector. he kept d...

Beach house. not just antiques, revolvers, including seven modified m-16 assault rifles. dangerous stuff in the wrong hands. >> we didn't know if somebody maybe was upset with the sale of a gun or something. >> reporter: nanette was worried about that, too. >> nanette told us that bill was dealing with a lot of shady people, gun dealers. >> reporter: and that was one theory. but there was something else, too, or, rather, someone else. >> the only person that we knew was frustrated with him was his business partner who he was in the lawsuit with. >> reporter: all of them, bill's kids and nanett...

Me. >> you were a magnet for bad people. >> it was -- it was a sick scene. >> but what he did next speaks volumes about john j. lennon's take-no-prisoners mentality. >> i remember i shot up their car a couple days after that, and i, like, heard sirens. the gun that i had, had to dump it. >> that meant that lennon needed a new weapon. >> a friend of mine had told me that, you know, there's a couple guns that came up from down south. >> he was offered an m-16 assault rifle. >> didn't want a gun like that, but he was like, "this is what i have," and i said, "well, okay." >> that gun and that deci...