Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-46.158.230.42-20160204211306/@comment-26149161-20160204225629

The Uzi rule applies here. Because it doesn't say that all orcs carried Uzi submachine guns, they might have. But here is a quote from the article I think makes sense.

 I have always been inclined to say there were none; but what is true is that Tolkien could have thought of them as inelegant, unmanly, and cumbersome weapons that had no place in the epic battles he described. His battle scenes are somewhat cathartic, undoing the horror of the battles he witnessed in World War I, where men were cut down by machine guns and artillery. Tolkien’s warfare is meant to give a man (and an Orc) a fair chance, while at the same time acknowledging that in warfare someone has to die, someone has to be wounded. He does not glorify battle but rather makes it a personal experience. Even when the forces of Mordor lob the heads of their slain enemies over the walls of Minas Tirith the combat is personal.