The Rise and Fall of the Submachine Gun

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Submachine guns used to be everywhere. From the trenches of World War I, to Stalingrad, to the jungles of Vietnam—you couldn’t picture a soldier without one. The MP40, the Thompson, the PPSh-41… even Hollywood kept them alive with movies like Die Hard and Invasion U.S.A.

But today? You almost never see them in military service. Why?

In this video, I break down the four big reasons armies abandoned the SMG:

* Rifles got lighter and faster

* Body armor stopped pistol rounds

* Logistics got streamlined

* Modern pistols closed the gap

We’ll also talk about the MP5, the rise of the Personal Defense Weapon (PDW), and why carbines like the M4 or HK416 have completely replaced the SMG on the battlefield.

By the end, you’ll understand why soldiers traded their 9mm spray guns for rifles—and why SMGs today are mostly police weapons, museum pieces, or movie props.

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