A few thousand of them were still in inventory in 1939. Regardless some British officers resisted buying Thompson submachine guns from the United States terming them “gangster guns.”Ĭonsider this: The first 15,000 Thompson submachine guns were Model 1921s manufactured to beautiful quality standards in the Colt factory. When Great Britain declared war on Germany on Septemtheir army was woefully short of weaponry. Their crimes, such as the murder of seven individuals on Valentine’s Day 1929, were over-publicized by newspapers and cinema newsreels. 45 Auto Thompson Submachine Guns saw relatively little action prior to World War II and big city gangsters (mostly in the Chicago area) saddled Tommy Guns with a negative reputation in the 1920s.
More recently the movie The Highwaymen shows Kevin Costner as Texas Ranger Frank Hamer buying Thompsons over the counter at a Texas gun store when preparing to hunt down bandits Bonnie and Clyde. Saunders pack his Tommy Gun all over France every week on the Combat TV series. Starting in 1962 gun-guys my age watched Sgt. The Thompson submachine gun - better known as the Tommy Gun - has a long, mythical history in both popular culture and reality.
