VGA-81 LAW

VGA-81 Light Assault Weapon

The LAW, as it came to be known, was developed in late 2078 by the Von Gunnes Arms corporation, the small arms division of the multi-industrial conglomerate named after and operated by right-wing multimillionaire and one-time Prime Ministerial candidate Davin Von Gunnes of Mechani.

The extreme (and extremely unpopular) political leanings of their founder nonwithstanding, the VGA engineers behind the LAW sought to meet a Mechani MoD contract seeking a compact, bullpup automatic weapon system that could provide suppressive fire capabilities akin to a light machine gun while maintaining acceptable levels of accuracy in comparison to standard rifleman's carbine- as well as being magazine-fed.

The designers behind the weapon chose 5.56x45mm as it is a common cartridge in many small arms designs, and is small, compact, and high-velocity- all features complementary to the goal of the project.

The proprietary transparent plastic helical magazine design was their solution to the conundrum of how to fit a large volume of ammo flush with the weapon while keeping bulk down- in the end, this impressed the MoD judges, which led to the weapon's adoption as the VGA-81 LAW in 2080, noticeably after the political humiliation of Von Gunnes himself, leading to the man retreating from public life and selling off his stake in the companies under his control.

In terms of the LAW's use, it is fielded by several law enforcement special response units in the Solani Commonwealth, and sees popularity among automatic riflemen in the Mechani/Solani military compared to belt-fed LMGs.

The only reported downsides are that prolonged automatic fire can lead to an oscillating motion developing in the gun's recoil pattern- existing doctrine counters this with controlled short bursts of fire over long continuous automatic "spray".