From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsmall armssmall armsguns that you hold with one or both hands when firing them → small
Examples from the Corpus
small arms• Then he opened up with small arms.• That does not include heaps of smaller arms and ammunition.• At that point, small arms and automatic weapons opened up.• The rebels have put up fierce resistance with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.• Several Third World countries have themselves become suppliers of small arms for such conflicts.• The consensus is that the Kiev government has tightened controls over the small arms trade in recent months. 