Still lurking and learning here…last weekend we had a local town festival here, and because we are a WW2-era boomtown and have an associated historical past, someone asked a local group of re-enactors to attend and give living-history demonstrations to the crowd. Among that group was a young man dressed as a marine, and he was using an M1A1 for the blank firing demonstration. After it was over, I tried to find him to ask about his weapon, but he had drifted into the crowd. I really wanted to get a closer look at the gun, but the guy minding the display table wouldn’t let me hold it; crowd safety reasons


Here’s my question: Do any of you guys know what model Thompson this might be? Could it be some sort of "specific-make blank-firing" weapon? I don’t know enough about the M1A1 to be expert, but it just didn’t have the “government” look to it…I’d be interested in finding one, or at least to know what it was that I saw. Thanks in advance.
Robert