Our recent discussion of Al Capone drove me to this.

What is the most unusual design characteristic of the Tommy Gun?

Well do you mean other than the fact that it could use a 50 round drum magazine or a standard 30 round straight magazine? If its something else I may need to ask my buddy Roland the headless Thompson gunner.

Yep, Kwll, it's not the magazine. Believe it or not they even made a 100 round magazine for that sucker. About the size of a garbage can lid and heavier than hell. Screw the short bursts, let's get some weight off this mother.

hmmm, are you talking about the uniqueness of the pressure activated action or the fact that it has 2 handgrips?

Nope, Kwll, it's much more basic than that. Sort of like cops without badges.

hmmm, I thought handgrips and magazines were pretty basic, using pistol bullets for an SMG is basic too but don't think you are looking for that. The only other thing I can tell you is that it sounds a lot more accurate than that old grease gun I used to carry. Need a hint, maybe too basic for what I'm thinking.

Kwll - I have an obvious advantage, having fired a lot of the things (they were still operational in the FBI until the 1970's. They were replaced briefly by the M-16, but that is way too powerful a round for use in urban settings - at least in peacetime. Also, in it's standard infantry configuration it is too long to try to move around in tight quarters, like cars and hallways. Eventually the Bu went with the H&K MP-5, which is a magnificent weapon and pretty much the standard choice of any counterterrorism outfit in the world.)

Getting back to the Thompson, when it fires it does one thing exactly the opposite of almost any other weapon. It starts out backward, if you will.

So I guess you are saying that the bolt slides forward before the recoil much like an M-60 MG? Fires from an open bolt position, have never fired one so really don't know.

Yep, that's it. Fires from an open bolt, which is really unusual for a military weapon with all the concerns about dirt getting into the mechanism.