Have we reached the pinnacle of self contained cartridge small arms?

[SteyrAUG]

What we need to work on now is getting rid of the anti gun political movement, eliminate gun laws up to and including the NFA, abolishing the anti gun policies of NY, NJ, MA, MD, CT, CA, and HI, eradicate its presence from academia and culture, then go to work on other countries. THAT is what we can work on now and is much more important in maintaining that we can have what we now have let alone anything that comes along that's better.

You asked, and that's the answer. If we don't accomplish that then the rest is useless trivia.

Yep, the days of the John Thompson "garage prototype" and Browning "workshop" gun are gone. Radical innovation doesn't always come from "the industry" as Stoner demonstrated.