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I'm no arms expert or even an aficionado and I don't know if aluminum is actually used in many small arms, but I would be surprised if it were notThere are quite a few materials (naturally including steel) which can be stronger (in many ways) and tougher that aluminum, but there are many portions of arms which don't require great strength and/or toughness like the triggerCertain kinds of aluminum can be treated to harden it (either through, or case hardening) and aluminum can certainly be used to surround other materials which provide the strengthSay for example a barrel of a semi-auto pistol the rifled inside diameter could be made of steel as a relatively thin walled tube whereas the rest of if could easily be aluminum, or plastic, and I presume for some arms that is actually the caseThe advantage of aluminum over steel is that it is about 1/3 the weight while still being quite strongIt also makes a much (MUCH) better heat sink than steel, in case the object is to keep a barrel and the mechanisms associated with the firing chamber cool.
