Editing Submachine gun (section)

===Interwar period===
The Thompson entered production as the M1921. It was available to civilians, but, because of the weapon's high price, initially saw poor sales. The Thompson (with one Type XX 20 round "stick" magazine) had been priced at $200 in 1921 (roughly {{Inflation|US|200|1921|fmt=eq}}). The Thompson was used in combat that same year:

West Virginia state police bought 37 guns and used them during the [[Battle of Blair Mountain]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Association |first=National Rifle |title=An Official Journal Of The NRA {{!}} Guns of the Battle of Blair Mountain |url=https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/guns-of-the-battle-of-blair-mountain/ |access-date=2022-12-02 |website=An Official Journal Of The NRA |language=en}}</ref> Some of the first batches of Thompsons were bought by agents of the [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|Irish Republican Army]]. They purchased a total of 653 units, though [[U.S. Customs and Border Protection|U.S. customs authorities in New York]] seized 495 of the units in June 1921.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hart |first=Peter |title=The I.R.A. at war 1916 - 1923 |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-927786-5 |edition=1. pbk. |location=Oxford}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ryan |first=Meda |title=Tom Barry: IRA Freedom Fighter |publisher=Mercier Press |year=2003 |isbn=1-85635-425-3 |page=125}}</ref>

The Thompson, nicknamed "Tommy Gun" or "Chicago Typewriter" became notorious in the U.S. due to its employment by the [[Mafia]]: the image of pinstripe-suited [[James Cagney]] types wielding drum-magazine Thompsons caused some military planners to shun the weapon. However, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and other U.S. police forces themselves showed no reluctance to use and prominently display these weapons. Eventually, the submachine gun was gradually accepted by many military organizations, especially as World War II loomed, with many countries developing their own designs. The [[United States Marine Corps|U.S. Marine Corps]] adopted the Thompson during this period and used them during the [[Banana Wars]] in [[Central America]]. The gun was also used by the [[China Marines]].

During the [[1924 Estonian coup d'état attempt|1924 uprising]] [[Soviet Union|the Soviets]] supplied four Thompsons to Estonian Communist militants; those were used against Estonian soldiers in a failed attempt to storm [[1924 Estonian coup attempt#Action|the Tallinn barracks]]. Some of the  defenders were armed with [[MP 18|the MP18s]]; and this was possibly the first engagement where submachine guns were used on both sides.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Отчет стрелкового полигона: пистолет-пулемет Томпсона |url=https://kalashnikov.media/article/weapons/otchet-strelkovogo-poligona-pistolet-pulemet-tompsona |access-date=2022-11-24 |website=kalashnikov.media |language=ru}}</ref>

Germany transferred its MP 18s to the German police forces after World War I. They also saw use in the hands of various [[paramilitary]] ''[[Freikorps]]'' during the aftermath of the [[German revolution of 1918–1919|German Revolution]]. In the 1920s a new, more reliable box magazine was developed for the MP 18 to replace the older snail-drum magazines.  In 1928 a new version of the MP 18, the MP 28, saw the light of day, it featured the new box magazine as standard, a bayonet lug and a single shot mode. The MP 28 was manufactured in Belgium and Spain and was widely exported from there, including to China and South America. Another variant based on the MP 18 was the [[MP 34]] that was manufactured by the Germans through the Swiss [[front company]] Solothurn. The MP 34 was manufactured from the very best materials available and finished to the highest possible standard. Consequently, its production costs were extremely high. It was adopted by the Austrian police and army in the 1930s, and they were taken over by the Germans after [[Anschluss|German annexation of Austria]] in 1938. The [[MP35]] was another interwar German submachine gun, designed by the Bergmann brothers. It was exported to Sweden and Ethiopia and also saw extensive use in the [[Spanish Civil War]]. About 40,000 of the type were manufactured until 1944, with many going into the hands of the [[Waffen-SS]]. The [[Erma EMP]] was yet another submachine gun from this period, based on a design by [[Heinrich Vollmer]], about 10,000 were manufactured. It was exported to Spain, Mexico, China and Yugoslavia, but also used domestically by the SS, as well as being produced under license in [[Francoist Spain]].