A pistol is a side arm. A not-that-effective one, even sometimes when the users are highly trained. It seems to be a form-factor problem, and the mechanism has

A pistol is a side arm. A not-that-effective one, even sometimes when the users are highly trained. It seems to be a form-factor problem, and the mechanism has to do with trigger pull and flinch. (And more generally, people acting funny in the heat of combat.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FBI_Miami_shootout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FBI_Miami_shootout In no world will even a scaled-down version of this probably ever be worth humping around the extra bulk and weight and introducing complicated maintenance and reliability issues. That's tautological. If it's too heavy and not reliable enough, then it's tech not worth putting on the battlefield. The question is if it can be made light and reliable enough. The same question once faced autoloaders, sidearm pistols, revolvers, holo/red dot sights, magnified optics, and even firearms themselves. The answer is universally, when it's ready, it can be useful in certain contexts.