Changes noted, both of you.
OnlytheStrong:
Just to make a minor nuisance of myself
, your weapon would probably be a carbine--or PDW if it was on the smaller end. SMG technically refers to guns chambered for pistol amunition and the term probably would've fallen out of use along with chemically propelled firearms as it no longer applied.
Alexandros:
Armor provides a fair ammount of hardness (albiet reduced somewhat by AP). In general, just firing at the target's armor won't do nearly as much damage because it is reduced by the armor (though a target is, of course, easier to hit).
Armor also has inserts and plates which provide bonus wound points. Then there are personal shields. In general, being easier to hit is balanced out by reduced damage output and the bonus VP provided by a shield and the bonus WP provided by armor (unless you call a shot to ignore hardness, which is equivilant to a normal hit beating a target's AC in terms of damage). If everyone is well equiped things balance. Unarmored civilians not so much. The system is more involved, but it also scales better than the normal armor as DR rules, which fall to pieces somewhere between 5th and 8th level in my experience.