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RE: The sad truth
Ouch!
Yeah, grease guns were stamped metal, much less expensive. Here you have to get a federal permit to own an automatic weapon, but it is possible--it's a lot easier to get the same weapon modified so it can only fire semi-auto. I'd probably just put it in a display case, so there's no particular reason for mine to be operational. Although having said that, a burglar would probably think twice if he saw one trained on him!
Yes, during WW2 nearly all guns started to be made from stamped parts instead of milled. That happened especially in Germany first, because of a lack of rescources and the need to speed up production. Soon after also in Russia. But also the Brits went that way with some guns. Have you ever looked at a Sten gun? Its absolutly amazing how primitive that thing is built - and yet it works pretty well. Its made of 15 parts or so, and only the barrel and the bolt are not made of sheet metal.
About the conversion to semi auto: from what I understood, that is rather difficult to do. Because it is pretty simple to change the functionality of the trigger group to semi only - but then its just as easy to change it back again. And that they want to prevent. So they demand a solution that cannot be altered again, and thats not easy to do.
If you want the Thompson just as a display model, may be there are non functional replicas. Sure they will be more affordable, too.
For home defense its impractical anyway. You dont want to turn your house into a war zone, do you. For home defense you need something, that delivers the decisive blow with total reliability, and without the need to practice every week with it. Like a cut off double barrel shotgun or a good quality revolver, like a 4 inch S&W .357 or so with the right kind of ammo. All that is much more affordable than some fancy converted SMG or AR. You have those great gun shows in the US, don't you, where you can get 2nd hand stuff. Or from a pawn shop perhaps. And a old shotgun is not seen as such a dodgy weapon like a assault rifle, I assume. And yet it will stop everybody with one shot, no questions left. At a distance below 60 feet it never fails. Also not mechanically - stay away from pump actions. Nothing can jam with a double barrel, so you have always 2 safe shots at least.
A .38 revolver is what I have, although my wife has a semi-auto pistol. Honestly, I've been thinking about a shotgun for some time, but if we ever get burglarized I'll probably be too busy laughing at the crook as our dog tears him apart to take aim, anyway. Besides, my wife might want to have some fun with one of her swords--or that giant dagger that's on the wall by the Christmas tree.
Yeah, a .38 revolver is also good enough. The stopping power is more a matter of the bullet type anyway, it doesn't have to be super powerfull.
Automatic are also reliable, if its a decent brand... usually, mostly all the time. But you know how it is, Murphy's law and all... On a revolver there is basically nothing that can go wrong - unless you forget to load it.
Well, with knifes and such stuff its a gamble. I have plenty of them here, in all sizes. Even a ancient greek sword, like they have in the movie 300 - but that needs a new handle... one of the jobs I will do "one day". :)
But I am in Germany - in the US having a knife seems a little too optimistic. When just about everybody has a gun, its not such a good idea to have a knife. At least, not only a knife....
Don't believe everything you hear: Even here in the Midwest there are lots of people who don't own guns, not including hunting weapons they don't usually have on them. Knives are a lot more popular, but mostly of the utility kind--they have lots of uses. Also, most of us who do go around armed are very careful not to show it--we don't want to invite trouble.
Between my wife and I we have about a dozen swords and daggers ... cavalry, broadswords, katanas, and I was given an actual Marine dress sword and instructed not to ask questions about where it came from. They're very cool, but unless there's a zombie apocalypse I'd just as soon not take one into battle.
I have about 80 or 90 knifes, from a Swiss army knife to the greek sword. But really I don't do swords, that Greek things was kind of a coincidence. It was for sale on Amazon as a "replica" to hang on a wall, for 25 bucks or so. So I assumed it would be one of those Halloween type of jobs, made from thin sheet metal. I was much surprised to find that it is cut out of a quarter inch stainless steel plate, weighing 6 lbs or so. Just the handle is total crap, thats why I want to make a new one. But that thing can sort out some Zombies, I tell you... :)
This is very similar to my one. Its actually a Spartan sword. But thats Greek enough for me... :)
Other than that, I just have a few machetes from Kershaw, which could get away as a sword, I guess.
The ancient Germanic tribes had things like that already 3000 years ago, called a sax. Without the "ophone". It was their universal tool/weapon in their daily life as farmers. I know it more from old pirate movies... :)
But the rest are mainly knifes of different patterns, from medival daggers over Bowie knifes to modern hunting knifes. Many of them are made of damascus steel. I had a scource that made them for reasonable prices, some years ago.
I bought them as a investment, with the intention to sell them one day. Perhaps with a nice wooden plate to hang them on a wall or so, or put them on a shelf. Lets see...
As long as you're prepared for the zombie apocalypse, that's the important thing!