Talk:List of gun abbreviations

Non-English Abbreviations

I'm glad this page is up and running, but since this is an English wiki, would it be possible to include translations for the non-English abbreviations on this list? I doubt many of us know all the languages enough to decipher the non-English abbreviations mentioned in this list.--Mazryonh 15:28, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

I also don't know the Russian and Chinese ones and will be putting the English translation of them soon.--SB2296 16:11, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

Discarded Abbreviations

This will list those discarded abbreviations or those considered inappropriate for posterity or until someone higher up decides they belong anyhow. I contributed one below:

• EMAC: Used to denote any ranged weapon that accelerates its (usually inert and relying solely on its high kinetic energy to deal damage) ammunition via Electromagnetic Acceleration, to distinguish it from weapons that use chemical explosives to propel ammunition as conventional firearms do. Thus, EMAC weapons are not strictly firearms per se. The term is usually associated with railguns and coilguns. Man-portable versions are commonly called EMAC guns, while vehicle-mounted versions are called EMAC cannons. "EMAC Rifle" is technically inappropriate, since this class of ranged weaponry does not require rifling of any sort in its barrel, but is often used to denote any man-portable two-handed EMAC weapon.

I'll admit it was a bit verbose, but EMAC weapons are not fictional anymore--they do exist, albeit in prototypical form, in the US military R&D, and I thought this kind of abbreviation would be a quick way to denote weapons of this type (as well as explaining what they are and how they are different from conventional firearms) in entries on this wiki. Some entries that feature EMAC weapons include Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, STALKER, and Eraser. That's why I thought this abbreviation was important enough to include. --Mazryonh 15:28, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

• Removed it since this is a list of real appreviations, not ones we feel like making up. As far as I'm aware EMAC isn't a term used to describe magnetic accelerators. Also, the first railgun design was patented over a hundred years ago, the Germans tested a weaponised design in WW2, and any university engineering faculty can build a working railgun. They certainly don't just exist in military R&D (also, the research ones include prototypes by private companies: one's BAE Systems). Really, we need to add a seperate list of gun terminology if we want something like that (which would also let us define terms like clip and chaingun for the non-gunny reader's education), not just try to shoehorn it into a list of abbreviations it doesn't belong in. Evil Tim 09:40, 22 April 2011 (CDT)