This is a fine example of a late World War II production M1A1 Thompson Submachine Gun manufactured by the Auto-Ordnance Corp. in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The M1A1 was introduced in April 1942 as a war-expedient/simplified version of the M1928 Thompson Submachine Gun. The war expedient features included the elimination of the barrel cooling fins, Cutt's compensator, adjustable rear sight and removable buttstock. They also employed a side-mounted cocking handle and a fixed firing pin with a slightly longer bolt which allowed the weapon to be easier and cheaper to manufacture. This example has the standard Lyman "L" type fixed rear sight, horizontal walnut forearm and fixed walnut buttstock. The left side of the receiver is stamped with a very faint U.S. inspectors initials: "G.E.G." followed by a faint "RIA/U.S. Ordnance Cross-Cannon" final acceptance proof. The left side of the receiver is marked "THOMPSON SUBMACHINE GUN/CALIBER 45 M1A1/NO. 744021". The right side is marked: "AUTO ORDNANCE CORPORATION/BRIDGEPORT CONNECTICUT U.S.A." respectively. The lower frame group is correctly marked: "AUTO/SINGLE" and "FIRE/SAFE,". This SMG comes with one 30-round blued, stick magazine and a green canvas storage case/bag. There is a small import mark on the left front side and underside of the receiver that reads: "INTER-AMERICAN/SAC.TO. CA."

Very fine with 90% plus of the light gray arsenal type parkerized finish overall with edge and high spot wear from handling and cycling the weapon as well as some light shooting. The wood components are all in very fine to excellent with a nice matching medium brown color overall with some light/minor handling marks on the sides in a couple places. A very nice example of a true classic WWII era Auto-Ordnance M1A1 submachine gun. NOTE: This weapon is a restricted, National Firearms Act (NFA) Class 3, Fully Automatic Weapon, that is registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) under the provisions of 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44 and 27 CFR part 478. This weapon is currently registered as being "LIMITED TO USE AS A SALES SAMPLE (Pre-86)" and as such can only be purchased by an FFL, with a Class 2 or Class 3 SOT License.