system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[The Thing, 1982] Why did they have all these guns in Antarctica?

The commander of the American base wore a pistol belt at all times, and they had an entire rack of shotguns. The Norwegian camp had at least one semi-automatic rifle, and a whole heap of ammunition.

Were they expecting burglars to come out of the snow? Or really aggressive penguins?
gpt
The shotguns may be a conservation tool, actually. They're good for hazing (scaring off) animals, and taking birds and animals (killing for scientific work). Shotguns are nice because you can put all kinds of non-lethal stuff in them and launch them at stuff, and you can also shoot a bird or even a seal. I've done work on an island where we had a shotgun that we used a variety of pyrotechnic shells with to scare off birds. We also had birdshot to remove particularly problematic seagulls preying on terns. 

A pistol is good in the long periods of non-law enforcement or transport in antarctic. It's not obvious that they would need one, but if they have one, it may be for the months where nobody can come to the station and people go crazy. 

I suspect that the norwegian camp had a rifle out of tradition - A rifle is a useful tool for a variety of reasons, and also because if you need to send one firearm, it might as well be one that can take down a large animal.