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baremuffin:
Let us begin with the fact that for any weapon to be considered as a machine gun or sub-machine gun it has to be a full automatic weapon.
People that are not familiar with the different classifications often call full automatic assault rifles machine guns.
In days past machine guns were very heavy and generally mounted on a tripod. The light .30 machine gun that was used during the Second World War and in Korea was normally mounted on a tripod, was belt fed, and had a gun crew (a second gunner and ammo bearers). This same machine gun could be fitted with a stock and bipod.
This day and age light machine guns are lighter than their predecessors (but still weigh much more than an assault rifle) and are usually fixed with a stock and bipod (but not always). They usually fire a larger caliber round and are usually belt fed, but not always. Machine guns still have a gun crew, but they can be fired by a single individual.
So generally a machine gun is heavier, and fires a larger caliber round, than an assault rifle.
No sem-atutomatic weapon (which is what ToolZ purchased) can be called a machine gun.
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