Re weapon request: Best possible answer is AR platform.
I'm currently working on creating a forum post to get a discussion about this going. Both AR(m) and AK prefixs can get a bit muddled even to people very knowledgeable in firearms. From both a historical and contemporary perspective. I'm trying to figure out some best practices in identification that would carry over from real-world applications to the tagging system.
need an amorphous blob of a "firearm" really be positively identified as something?
Positively no, genereally yes. At least in this instance. Depending on how positive you wish to get. I can definitively tell you the artist is portraying an AR pattern rifle. I could not go on to list a manufacturer, caliber, specifications etc etc.
This amorphous blob very plainly has: round, two-piece styled hand-guards, a round, small diameter butt stock, flat, MIL-STD styled rail mounted flush to receiver, no apparent iron sights, precision optics/inferred precision shooting spotter communications, signature 'black rifle' look, most of which are common characteristics or capabilities found with the AR family of weapons. Professionally referred to as AR pattern rifles.
