This has gnawed at me for a while: if that gatling-gun thing Ahnuld uses in T2 is a minigun, what qualifies as a gun-gun? And are rifles and handguns microguns?
Here’s a maxi-gun, Mk-II: http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h80000/h80528.jpg
It’s small for a Gatling-style machine gun:
It’s called a minigun because it’s a multi-barreled machine gun (Gatling gun is a commonly used term) that uses 7.62mm rounds whereas most weapons of this type use much larger rounds.
It’s not that it’s a small gun, just small compared to other guns of its type.
Miniguns pretty much fire standard rifle-caliber ammo (e.g., 7.62 mm). Guns like the 20 mm M61 Vulcan are generally what miniguns are being compared to.
The big, 20mm M-61 was created first. Therefore, when the rifle-ammo version was created, it was the “mini” version of the Vulcan. I’m sure it would have been called something else if it had been made first.
But I’m sure the previous posts made this abundantly, redundantly clear.
Thanks to all!
I don’t know jack about guns but that article quotes a rate of 3,000 rounds per minute. That’s 50 per second. That’s a damn lot. Is that correct?
20mm? Pfft, I prefer the 30mm GAU-8 Avenger. 
No, the article states that the minigun fires at 4,000 rounds per minute or 67 rounds per second. 
That’s not even as fast as they get…
That’s why Gaitling guns have multiple barrels; a single barrel would get too hot to function.
That’s the one the Air Force stuck wings on and called it the A-10, right?
Yes…that’s the gun from the A-10. Nasty, ehe? ETA: Link in case anyone is interested.
Was going to mention the metal storm but got beaten too it. 
-XT
Fancy looking clock tower, did they get sick of cuckoos every hour?
The rate of fire on that sucker, um, sucks. 
-XT
Not a timekeeping device. Notice the numbers do not go to 12.
Heh, the recoil force on the Gau-8 is more than half the thrust of the A-10. That strikes me as exceedingly awesome.
So what does it do?