Rigger III has an interesting feature - most vehicle descriptions had a "Similar Models" line, naming a few vehicles with the same stats but different brands, thus increasing variety without increasing the data overload. I think this should be done for guns as well - after all, there are, for example, various variants on the AK-47 IRL (such as the Israeli Galil AR, or the Finnish Valmet) or on the 1911 pistol, so why won't we expand the world of Shadowrun weapons by naming a few more weapons that use the same stats as existing ones?

My group does.

to be honest, i do that sort of thing pretty much automatically, no matter what type of gear you're talking about. very little of my gear list is made up of "armored jacket, sequencer rat-10," etcetera. most of it has a brand name of some sort.

Exactly. It makes it feel a little less like D&D that way.

I've got Jane's guns second ed, I just look at the game stat, look up a comparable gun, and fudge the stats. then you can pick flavor, I have a russian char that carries an old PSM, used average holdout pistol stats with a few mods (PSM can take a silencer, but its only good for about a clip and a half) and ther you are. and given that there are no real rules for how smartlinks work, I can say that the gun has been modified to accept it. just one example. you can also deturmine the "age" of the gun by doing the same in my game outlying areas are full of AK-47s last estimate that I heard was over a billion produced and hidden, and a gun with average use and proper care can last over a century, another way to add flavor.

My PCs carry Sigs.

One of my runners always carries a Mercedes heavy pistol. Yes, the face of the corporate world has changed.

No kidding.

Ex-Explosive ammo for a .357 SIG is a bitch to find, though.