5 ms·

I'm not a firearm expert by any means but still have a vague understanding of the those groupings - "assault rifle", "machine gun", "sub machine gun", "pistol"

I'm not a firearm expert by any means but still have a vague understanding of the those groupings - "assault rifle", "machine gun", "sub machine gun", "pistol" with one excpetion. Carbine. The best line I've read on it was something like - it's a relatively low powered shoulder fired weapon but can only be called a carbine if it's manufactured in the Carbine region of France. I thought that was funny but honestly I've got nothing better.

edrxty 4y ago
Yeah it's a heavily overused term. Best I can tell, it's come to mean a particular barrel length, somewhere between 14 and 16 inches but it can be any caliber or cartridge type really. It's supposed to be a short handy rifle, where a full size rifle is somewhere at 20+ inches.