Why are weapons USkeletalMesh instead of UStaticMesh in UE4 Tutorials?

Development Asset Creation
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1

I have looked at the classes which both of the these classes inherit and the only difference is that USkeletalMesh inherits a class called USkinnedMeshComponent. None of the methods inside USkinnedMeshComponent seem useful to use for weapons so I’m wondering why are the weapons set up as USkeletalMeshes as opposed to UStaticMeshes?
Is it in case an animator wants to rig the weapon and give it bones or something?

Is it common practice to use USkeletalMeshes for weapons and why?

2

It is extremely common to have weapons that have animations, therefore skeletons, and all of that.