Tommy: The Gun That Changed America

By Karen Blumenthal

Book Overview

John Taliaferro Thompson had a mission: to develop a lightweight, fast-firing weapon that would help Americans win on the battlefield. His Thompson submachine gun could deliver a hundred bullets in a matter of seconds--but didn't find a market in the U.S. military. Instead, the Tommy gun became the weapon of choice for a generation of bootleggers and bank-robbing outlaws, and became a deadly American icon. Following a bloody decade--and eighty years before the mass shootings of our own time--Congress moved to take this weapon off the streets, igniting a national debate about gun control. Critically-acclaimed author Karen Blumenthal tells the fascinating story of this famous and deadly weapon--of the lives it changed, the debate it sparked, and the unprecedented response it inspired.

• Format: Library Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GN1Z2QN9
• ISBN13: 9798855013245
• Release Date: June 2015
• Publisher: Bound to Stay Bound Books
• Length: 232 Pages
• Age Range: 12 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 7 to Postsecondary