A general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) is a belt-fed weapon used in a variety of roles, from bipod- or tripod-mounted infantry support to deployment as a helicopter door gun or a vehicle-mounted support weapon. It can provide fire support for vehicles or infantry from a variety of mounts.
In modern practice, it is an air-cooled medium machine gun, firing rifle cartridges such as the 7.62×51mm NATO, 7.62×54mmR Warsaw pact, or 7.92x57mm Mauser. It is generally operated from a stationary position from either a bipod or tripod, or otherwise mounted on a vehicle, as it is usually too powerful and heavy to be fired effectively on foot from an unsupported standing position or on the move.
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Famous quotes containing the words machine and/or gun:
“The white man regards the universe as a gigantic machine hurtling through time and space to its final destruction: individuals in it are but tiny organisms with private lives that lead to private deaths: personal power, success and fame are the absolute measures of values, the things to live for. This outlook on life divides the universe into a host of individual little entities which cannot help being in constant conflict thereby hastening the approach of the hour of their final destruction.”
—Policy statement, 1944, of the Youth League of the African National Congress. pt. 2, ch. 4, Fatima Meer, Higher than Hope (1988)
“I’d like to say I didn’t intend to kill her. But when you have a gun ... you always intend ... when you have to.”
—Ketti Frings (1915–1981)