Category:Machine guns

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, designed to fire bullets in quick succession from an ammunition belt or magazine, typically at a rate of 300 to 1800 rounds per minute. Fully automatic firearms are generally categorized as submachine guns, assault rifles, battle rifles, automatic shotguns, machine guns, or autocannons. Machine guns with multiple rotating barrels are referred to as "rotary machine guns".

As a class of military firearms, true machine guns are fully automatic weapons designed to be used as support weapons and generally used when attached to a mount or fired from the ground on a bipod or tripod. Light machine guns are small enough to be fired hand-held, but are more effective when fired from a prone position.