Longarms vs. Automatics?, Why two skills? Options

[counterveil]

Just wondering if anyone else sees strangeness in splitting Automatics and Longarms into two skills...I've fired Assault Rifles and Shotguns before, and other than the kick they're not a whole lot different in targeting mechanism, trigger pull, and hell the way you hold them is the same. Ditto for sniper rifles - especially multi-role rifles like the M-14. An AR on 3-round-burst setting is not that different either.

It just seems odd to me that someone with an effective Automatics skill rating of 4 with say, an Agility of 4 (DP 8 ) is going to be firing a shotgun with only DP 3 (assuming 0 points were taken in Longarms.

I can see the split of Pistols into its own group, having only recently learned to fire one (they are pretty different from shoulder arms), but it seems odd to me to split Longarms and Automatics into two separate skills. I had considered folding them into one skill, and then moving the Heavy Weapons skill under the "Firearms" skill group umbrella since it contains skills to fire LMGs and MMGs (again, not *that* much different from assault rifles), but am not sure how powerful it will make the Firearms skill group.

Hell, one could say similar for Blades and Clubs...they're objects you put in your hand and hit people with. Slightly different, yes, but if you have great skill at using a blade shouldn't there be some kind of defaulting to skills inside of the same skill group? Maybe I'm just missing the old skill tree...or maybe I'm missing an entire section of the skills chapter wherein they discuss this...

Thoughts?