GR : “I be journalist and know things.”
I bet he’s one of those journalists that thinks heart attacks and cardiac arrests are the same thing, and that men can have periods and get pregnant.
“AR” stands for ArmaLite Rifle, using the company name of the first company to develop this configuration, and the patent rights were sold to Colt. The Colt AR-15 is the only genuine AR rifle, and they hold the copyright on the name, but as the patents expired, other manufacturers began production of “AR-style” rifles, under their own designations.
Still a selective-fire design, and there is no “automatic” to it.