>>602740
>The whole distinction between handguns and rifles is meaningless to start with.
If you want to be anal retentive about it, the difference is that a long gun is meant primarily to be fired from the shoulder, and a handgun is not.
Yes I know about pistols with clip on stocks. That doesn't make it a long gun any more than firing a rifle from the hip makes it a handgun.
>The only thing that ultimately matters is muzzle energy
Except that can vary depending on your load data. Compare a blackpowder .45-70 load to something made by Buffalo Bore. So you either rate the firearm for the hottest cartridge it can take without going 'boom', or you make felons out of people for loading hotter than pissweak factory ammo. Or both.
Also, if you were super autistic, you'd include rate of fire to classify guns by Wattage. Except then you have the problem of eliminating operator skill from the equation for non-automatic firearms.