2050 Background Info - Handguns

The basic gun and bullet system has undergone some minor changes, but still remains the old standby in weapons technology. Most guns utilize caseless ammo. The projectiles are packed with propellant in the clips and leave no tell-tale shell casings. Clips are sealed in production and remain so until used. Ammo capacities are larger as bullets are smaller, made of plastic composites instead of metals. The guns themselves are often plastic composites. Handguns up to 12mm are legal for personal use as long as they are registered with the Metro Authorities. A serial code is inscribed on any legally produced ammo marking its manufacturer and point of origin. Guns are similarly marked on production along with a unique code for the weapon that is inscribed on the bullet upon firing. There are of course several illegal ways around the this little fact. Standard manufacturers' options include laser sight, gun camera and fingerprint locks. "Smart" chipping is standard in military and police models. Specialty rounds (armor piercing, explosive, etc.) are available with licensing.

SMGs and fully automatic rifles are still restricted, as are shotguns and heavy rifles and other milspec gear. Little can be done to stem the tide of these weapons to the street and there are always techs willing to modify a street legal weapon into something more useful.

Nicknamed stingers, these weapons fire a needle thin projectile, using various methods from compressed gas to magnetic repulsion for more advanced models. There weapon types have the advantage of being quiet and having a high payload and rate of fire. They can also fire "spreads" to improve accuracy. Needlers tend to be good at penetrating soft ballistic armor and can be doped with a variety of toxins. Stingers usually lack the range and raw damage of bullets, however. Most stingers are also fragile. Sliver guns are a variant on needlers, using a friction spinwheel to shave and fire knife-like sliver from a solid block of ceramic. Short-ranged but deadly, they combine the damage of shotgun with silence. Most are no louder than an electric toothbrush.

"G-rocs" or Pocket rockets fire small self-propelled rockets, small missiles in a sense. They are highly accurate in most cases and long ranged. The ignition of the rocket takes a few moments so most have a minimum effective range. They are a little quieter than an unsilenced standard firearm and can carry a wide variety of payloads. The large shells reduce the number of shots by a significant amount however and they can be fragile. G-Rocs are large, lethal looking weapons and all are illegal for civilian use. All are smart-chipped and some use Brilliant or Genius rounds.

Capacitor laser, or "cap" guns, are cutting edge hardware. Advances in the area of high energy capacitors and materials have allowed lasers to be reduced to a man portable size. Highly effective against "soft" targets due to pain, radiation and possible blindness, lasers have certain drawbacks. They are still energy hogs, aren't as useful against hardened targets, and take some time to affect their targets. They can be fuddled by smoke and "glitter" powder. Experiments in the area of "pulse" lasers that fire higher energy laser packets, are working toward solving some of these problems. Similar techniques are being used to improve Masers and other high yield energy weapons.