A type of short range machine gun that is carried as a personal weapon and uses pistol ammunition
Bare-chested children and their parents gathered in doorways, on roofs and in windows as he passed, watched warily by Brazilian troops carrying submachine guns. - New York Times, 09/03/2007.
An air-cooled, magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire pistol cartridges
a type of machine gun that is light and easily moved. Lightweight automatic small-arms weapon chambered for relatively low-energy pistol cartridges and fired from the hip or shoulder. Submachine guns usually have box-type magazines that hold 10-50 cartridges, or occasionally drums holding more rounds. A short-range weapon, they are rarely effective at more than 200 yards (180 m). They can fire 650 or more rounds per minute and weigh 6-10 lbs (2.5-4.5 kg). Important types include the Thompson submachine gun, or tommy gun (patented 1920), the British Sten gun of World War II, and the later Israeli Uzi