Assault Rifles vs. Carbines, skills Options

[kevyn668]

So, what's the difference skill wise (in SR not RL) between Assault Rifles, Carbines and SMGs? I was always under the impression that it had something to do w/ the mechanisms involved. Aside from the cartridge the weapon uses there doesn't seem to be that much difference between a chopped down AR or carbine and a SMG. Should the skill list actually look more like Recon/Rifts/Heros Unlimited (The Palladium Multiverse)? Is the sill difference because of effective range? Cyclic rates/ROF? Muzzel velocity? Should there be some general skill of "Automatic Weapons" or "-Rifles"?

And while I'm at it: I've always played (3ed SR, anyway) that if you had the pistols skill you could use a Machine Pistol or one of the burst capable pistols. This doesn't make much sense to me but the groups I played in didn't gripe so "when in Rome". (Plus, I like carrying a Browning and then a burst capable LP for crowd control ;) ) It seems like the SMG skill would be more appropriate since most SMG class weapons in SR seem more like Machine Pistols (Ingram m20t smartgun is obviously the descendent of the Ingram m10/ MAC series of Machine Pistols).

So, what do you people think?