The Tale of the Tommy Gun

(via Popular Mechanics)  Bootlegging gangsters firing a barrage of bullets at the G-men in pursuit—that’s picture you might have of the Tommy gun. But while the Thompson submachine gun was designed for the trenches of World War I and gained notoriety as a gangster’s weapon, it was the battlefields of World War II that saw it win its place in history alongside the other best-known firearms of all time, with as many as two million made.