View Single Post
Old May 28, 2001, 07:28 PM   #6
Cosmoline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: March 11, 2000
Posts: 1,080
One of the best sources of info is William Helmer's book "The Gun That Made the Twenties Roar". Before the Federal Firearms Act, there were only a few local restrictions on full auto ownership. However, gangsters still had to buy through a straw man because nobody would have sold to them directly. On a side note, Thompsons were no where near as common as the movies would suggest. 99% of bootleggers never owned one, and those who did own them couldn't shoot worth crap. In one case, over 1,000 rounds were fired from a Thompson in a Chicago gangland shootout. The result? One bystander slightly injured. They worked much better when the gangsters could line their enemies against a wall and fire at point-blank range.
Cosmoline is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.03882 seconds with 8 queries