Gee4orce said:
PGMP and FGMP are a bit of a mouthful - three letter acronyms are normally more pronounceable than 4 letter ones. I wonder what the infantry call these weapons ?
A few ideas from a US Army and police background:
In the Army we rarely called weapons such as a GMPG, HMG, SMG, by the FULL letter acronyms. We would just say "mg" for a generic machinegun term. A generic rifle, was a "rifle" in the military, sometimes "long gun" in police work. A submachinegun in law enforcement has been called a, "smg" which I guess is using the full acronym after all.
For a specific machingeun or other weapon, the model number, calibre, or a completey made up name was used, rarely a general description of the weapon type.
In the Army, you didn't say, "rifle" because there was more then one, you said, "M16" or "M1" from model numbers. The .50 caliber M2 Browning machingeun wasn't called the "HMG", it was called the "M2", "Ma-Deuce" or just the "50". The M60 7.62mm machingeun wasn't called the "GPMG", but the "M60", "60", or "Hog". The M249 Squad Automatic Weapon 5.56 mm (a LMG, the Belgian Minimi) we called the "Saw", a play on S.A.W.
However in police work, you have less weapons lying around. You normally only have ONE rifle, one shotgun, one pistol, and one submachingeun. So sometimes the generic term is used: grab the rifle, shotgun, pistol, or SMG. Sometimes brand names are used, such as "Colt" for our rifles, "Benelli" for our shotguns, "Glock" for pistols, etc. A common police SMG, the 9mm MP5 I have found is called both the "SMG" and "MP5".
So, it looks like no common practice. Acronyms, made-up names, calibers, generic acronyms, and model numbers have been used.
Have fun making up some new names for the FGMP and PGMP:
FGMP: The "FG" (why worry about the MP), the "Fuzzie", the "F-Gun", the "M25" (after its model number), or the "250" from its power rating (because the larger vehicle-mounted FG is called the "500" by the Marines).
PGMP: The "PG", the "Pig" (I like this one), the "P-Gun", or the "M12".
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