The urban guerrilla employs light weapons that are easily exchanged, and are normally captured from the enemy. Urban guerrilla weapons may also be purchased or homemade. Light weapons can be hand-carried, and are easily transported. Most light weapons, including automatic weapons, should have a short barrel.
Semiautomatic and automatic weapons add to the fire power of the urban guerrilla. Automatic rapid fire, however, reduces target efficiency, and there is a tendency to use too many rounds and waste ammunition. This may be compensated for by practice in aiming and training in precision firing. Poorly trained men using automatic weapons waste too much ammunition.
Experience has proved that the light machine gun is the most basic of urban guerrilla weapons. This weapon is ideal for city street fighting, and is feared by the enemy. Every urban guerrilla must become proficient in handling light machine guns for they are the most popular and useful weapon in the arsenal of the Brazilian urban guerrilla.
The ideal machine gun used by the urban guerrilla in Brazil is the INA .45 calibre machine gun. Other types of machine guns may be employed with the understanding that different calibres necessitate different rounds of ammunition. and cause a problem both in acquisition and supply. Therefore it is most important that the urban guerrilla manufacture a standardized machine gun so that a majority of the rounds of ammunition required can be manufactured or acquired in a more simple fashion.
It is important that each urban guerrilla action team contain a guerrilla armed and proficient in one or another automatic weapon or machine gun. All others in that team should be armed with .38 calibre pistols, which is our standard hand weapon. The .32 calibre pistol is useful but the .38 calibre pistol is preferable as a weapon since it stops rather than wounds an enemy.
Hand grenades and conventional smoke bombs may be considered light weapons. They have a defensive use as well in providing cover for withdrawals.
Weapons with longer barrels present problems to the urban guerrilla, since most are more difficult to carry and draw attention to the guerrilla. Among the long barrel weapons commonly used are the FAL, the Mauser rifle, and such hunting rifles as the Winchester.
For short range and close-in or point-blank targets, the urban guerrilla should employ the shotgun. Shotguns are particularly useful for the bad marksmen or in night firing when targets are elusive. A simple airgun may be used for training in marksmanship. Bazookas and mortars are of value for planned attacks on specific targets, though only experienced urban guerrillas should use bazookas and mortars.
Generally heavy arms are not recommended for urban guerrilla attacks, largely because their use restricts mobility and speed. Homemade weapons, on the other hand, are often as efficient as the best weapons produced by conventional arms manufacturers. Minor modifications, such as cutting off the barrel of a shotgun, aid the operational effectiveness of the urban guerrilla. In this sense, the gunsmith plays a critical role, The guerrilla gunsmith cleans and repairs the weapons. It is recommended that a small armory be established for altering some weapons, and for the manufacture of effective small arms. The gunsmith should be skilled in metallurgy and the operation of a mechanical lathe, so that he can be proficient in the manufacture of homemade weapons.
Courses in the manufacture and use of explosives should be incorporated into the urban guerrilla's training program. Students of explosives should have available all items required to ensure full and complete education and practice. In this area of training, experimentation with poor quality or incorrect substances may be disastrous. Molotov cocktails, gasoline containers, and homemade devices such as catapults and mortars for firing explosives can be fabricated. So too can grenades made from pipes or tin cans, smoke bombs, mines, plastic explosives, dynamite bombs, gelatine capsules, and ammunition of all kinds, including weapons made from potassium chloride. All are indispensable to the success of the urban guerrilla's mission.
The urban guerrilla can either purchase the necessary ingredients to manufacture explosives and rounds of ammunition, or he can expropriate them. Specific attack missions should be designated and planned for the expropriation of weapons, explosives, and ammunition. Since accidents from poorly stored or cared for explosives may prove disastrous, these should be used as quickly as possible against planned targets.
The urban guerrilla's firepower depends on his weapons and his ability to maintain them. The guerrilla can also take advantage of modern technology by introducing new and more efficient weapons into his arsenal, allowing him to expand his tactical horizons. The employment of the machine gun in robbing banks, for example, increased both the threat to the enemy as well as ensured greater success of this form of expropriation in Brazil.
When the urban guerrillas obtain a larger number of machine guns and automatic weapons, this will allow them to improve their tactics, particularly if such weapons are uniformly distributed. The fire team armed with uniform automatic weapons and interchangeable ammunition, with reasonable maintenance support, is capable of reaching a level of high efficiency.