"If long-barreled rifleguns were for everybuddy,.... there'd be no short-barreled rifleguns in existance"
this is true, though the short barreld guns were few in numbers when compared to the longer guns during the last quarter of the 18th century and into the beginning of the 19th. it also depends on where we make the break as to what is short, I have considered anything under 42" as short and anything over as long, many will probably have a different set of lengths to stick in the equation , I doubt that there is an "official" answer to where the break point is.