I got to fire a legally owned Thompson once. My friend’s FIL was a big collector. It was quite an experience.
I went to a machine gun shoot some years back. You could buy ammo for any gun you wanted to shoot and the owner would supervise you as you fired the weapon.
I got to shoot a MAC 10, a British Lanchester, a Swedish K Model, a Thompson, a BAR, an AK-47 and finally an M2 .50 cal. At that point I ran out of ammo money...
The MAC was hard to control; a long burst would result in shooting holes in the sky.
The Lanchester was a pussycat, slow-firing with hardly any recoil. If you ran out of ammo it would make a good club.
The K Model was easy to make hits with and my favorite among the subguns. I could imagine shooting jackrabbits with it.
The Thompson was a bit of a disappointment because I had three stoppages while emptying its 20-round magazine. Still, I was glad to handle one.
The BAR: like a dream come true for someone who had watched numerous episodes of Combat! as a kid. Full auto .30/06, y’all!
Didn’t like the AK. Not very controllable or comfortable to shoot even when firing short bursts. Maybe I just dislike ugly commie guns.
Ma Deuce, now that was an experience! Ammo was armor-piercing and I was shooting at an old ‘70 Eldorado. The bullets were passing through it and kicking up dust from the earth berm on the far side. Wished I’d brought more $$$...