Are all handguns listed in the same tech category? I was wondering because a revolver would be a lot more simple of a design than an automatic. A bolt action rifle is a lot more simple a design than a semiautomatic. Believe it or not, fully automatic is more simple than semiautomatic, from a mechanical standpoint, anyway. Are there biases that would allow a bolt action to work, but an M-16 wouldn't? Just wondering.
To keep things from becoming too complicated, all technological devices are classed by the core technology involved. Thus all "guns" (which use gunpowder) are in the same category as explosive-driven, and will work where explosions work. Pneumatic weapons, electrical rail guns, and assorted energy weapons have different biases, because the core of their function is different.
When it comes to designing and building, the usual approach is to sit-mod according to the complexity of the device. I would agree that building a matchlock rifle is easier than building an M-16. There are different technologies involved--but all the added technologies of the M-16 are gear systems, a lower bias level than the use of explosive power itself. A weapon that uses other technologies, such as a laser sighting device or sonar finder, is usually handled by having that aspect treated as a separate device, in the same way that the use of a scope will be rolled separately, and if successful will bonus the use of the weapon.
--M. J. Young