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Tommy Guns, Liquor, FDR, and Al Capone
When the NRA supported gun control
The year was 1934. Franklin D. Roosevelt was President. Prohibition had been repealed but gangsters like Al Capone still ruled private fiefdoms. The Tommy gun was their favorite weapon.
What was the Tommy Gun?
In 1918, General John Thompson invented a portable automatic rifle for American soldiers. Called the Thompson submachine gun, and nicknamed the “Tommy” gun, it was manufactured too late for WWI but was used in WWII.
It became popular during the 1920s with gangsters. It allowed them to kill efficiently, as it sprayed hundreds of bullets in seconds. On February 14th, 1929, it was used in the Valentine’s Day Massacre where 7 members of Bugs Moran’s gang were killed in Chicago by Al Capone’s crew.
The US were in the midst of an epidemic of gun violence caused by growth in organized crime. The reason? Prohibition.
What was Prohibition?
Made into law by the Eighteenth Amendment, it banned the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages in the United States from…
