I'm going to have to put in another vote for "mind" as the best weapon. Without it, all the others kinda fail.
In terms of more specific weapons...
Melee, the Spear has the widest range of potential uses, and the longest history of military effectiveness.
For home defense? A decent, reliable 9mm pistol with Cor-bon frangible ammunition. Will make most any intruder dead without much worry of overpenetration, even in cheap modern constructions..
Infantry? The AK-47, hands down. And yes, I agree, the original russian models are the best. Not the most accurate weapon, ever.. but considering you can bury one in mud for 12 hours, pull it out, and fire it without it jamming.. yeah, reliability wins. Plus, the 7.62x39 round is far superior in "stopping power" to the 5.56.
Sniping? The Barrett M107 is nice, as is Accuracy International's AS50, although for personal preference, I'd take the Dragunov SDV, even though it's technically just a "marksman" variant of the AK, and not specifically a "sniper" weapon. It uses the same loose tolerances to provide the reliability of the AK, but those same loose tolerances make it a bit less accurate than an explicitly designed "sniper weapon" at extreme range.
Although for an "anti-material rifle with anti-personnel capability".. the Barett XM-109, with it's 25mm HEDP rounds, is just sickness personified.
Other worthies of mention?
Metal Storm Limited makes some truly sick "extreme rate of fire" weaponry, including a 36 barrel prototype that currently holds the world record... a little over a million rounds a minute, if you could reload it fast enough...
The "Auto-Assault 12" by Military Police Systems, Inc. is one hell of a mean automatic shotgun.. Especially with it's capacity to fire the "Frag-12" line of
explosive ammunition.. fin stabilized 18.5mm HE, HEAP, and HEAB... (sensor fused high explosive with air burst triggering).. 32 round drum mag, only needs cleaning every 10,000 rounds.. yeah, nice toy.
<19:42>[DPS]: can i have the coords of that 'real life' please.. i'dd like to scout it
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