The Thompson Sub-Machine Gun - don't leave home without it
Philip B. Sharpe
Many years ago
Ed: This article was pilfered to make content to work with. It will be deleted soon.
Editor's Note: Since the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory of Northwestern University, the Director of which is Editor of the Police Science Section of this JOURNAL, came into being as a direct result of the so-called Valentine Day Massacre which occurred in Chicago on February 14, 1929, a crime noteworthy for its speed of execution and the number of victims involved, both of which were made possible through the employment of the so-called "sub-machine gun," it seems quite fitting that an article exhaustively describing this weapon should appear in the section which he edits. Mr. Sharpe, as a perusal of his paper will show, is quite familiar with the history of the Thompson gun from its inception over ten years ago up to the present time. Persons interested in informing themselves upon the mechanism, function, and uses of this weapon, will find his contribution a most welcome one.
C. G.
At the National Rifle Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio, back in August, 1920, there appeared a strange looking weapon. It was neither rifle nor shotgun; pistol nor revolver. It had two odd-looking pistol grips with finger grooves in the forward surfaces. It had no buttstock. The user held the weapon on his hip by firmly grasping the two grips and squeezed the trigger.
Then things began to happen. From the muzzle burst a sheet of flame containing a string of copper-jacketed pellets; from the breech [Page 1099] erupted a shower of shiny brass cases. Crowds gathered. Here was a deadly arm, capable of spraying the landscape with sudden death in the form of 230 grain .45 Colt Automatic pistol bullets.