Real-life heavy pistols
It's a little hard to make out, but it always looked to me as if the heavy pistol has four barrels: 
Turns out that a four-barreled pistol was a proposal from the US Army's future force warrior program. FWIW, there's also a less sci-fi four-barreled pistol already in existence, the COP 357 Derringer.
I had wondered about this, but one of my kid's friends was over yesterday and showing off a book he had that included
Turns out that a four-barreled pistol was a proposal from the US Army's future force warrior program. FWIW, there's also a less sci-fi four-barreled pistol already in existence, the COP 357 Derringer.
In other exotic gun news, I have discovered something that I'd love to see implemented some day. Sure, we have spearguns, but what we really need is an underwater pistol. The "after firing all five cartridges, the barrel unit must be sent back to its manufacturer for reloading" bit suggests that it might be an effect rather than a piece of equipment, though. Although then there's this thing …