Only if you believe the pampered princes in the Beltway. The guys that have to actually go into harms way end up picking up enemy weapons after the fight picks up.
The M16/M4 can't handle battlefield conditions the same as an AK47, and they don't have the knockdown power of an AK47.
Account after account after account after account of troops engaged in heavy combat relate to picking up enemy weapons for the larger caliber.
Yet the Baghdad Bob in DC all say the accounts are unfounded.
Kind of like the idiot (CG of MARFORSYSCOM, or Deputy Commandant?) that claimed the cheap aluminum mags were better than MAGPUL mags and banned Marines from using other than issued magazines......and then the comments section of the "Marine Corps Times" went crazy asking this paper pusher when the last time he had to use any of the issued equipment with HIS life on the line.
knockdown power is a myth.
You can penetrate a human, but nothing remotely the size of a bullet can knock a man down.
You can penetrate certain parts. If you get his spine or brain stem he will fall, but will not be knocked down.
If you penetrate the heart or large blood vessels, comeing from it, the target will bleed out, but will not be knocked down.
Lavoisier the French Scientist who discovered oxygen was sentenced to death. His last experiment was to blink his eyes as long as possible after the knife cut his neck. It took 16 seconds for that head to die....