While bullets don't need air the gun does. The expanding gases aren't sufficient to cycle the gun properly so it won't camber the next round properly. Space would turn most guns into manual fire ones. Maybe a very high tolerance gun like an ak might cycle sometimes. Most don't work under water because the gas recycle is full of water, empty would be equally problematic.
You know that's not correct. Guns don't even use the full amount of gases released from the ammunition being fired to cycle the weapon. There would be plenty of expanding gases to drive a bolt back. Many guns even have release valves to prevent too much gas being driven back into the gas system and putting too much strain on the metal, reducing life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas-operated_reloading
http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=51085
Here's a thread with people discussing the gas plug on an M14 if you'd like to learn more about it.
You can look at how much residual atmosphere would be present in a gun gas system and it's next to nothing in the Wiki animations. More gas is produced by the explosion of the bullet than is ever needed to operate the gas system. These systems are designed to use the expanding gas of the fired round to cycle, not the atmosphere. A semi-automatic weapon would fire just fine.
The issue is temperature and vacuum. A gun would have no way of losing temperature without a more sophisticated cooling system. Each round fired would add to it and it would almost never decrease, after just a few rounds that weapon will start to glow and eventually melt. Most weapons now are cooled by convection cooling. The air around them cools the weapon.
In space those weapons would be in vacuum. Unlike Sci-Fi movies where people freeze when they're in space, that would take quite a long time. It's like a thermos. A perfect vacuum would allow those objects to retain their heat. Guns would have no method without a new system such as a water block or something like that, to remove heat.
On to the trailer, I'm excited to see the Transformers in this one. You can hear it at 2:08. I wonder if the dog is actually a transformer? :thumbsup:
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