The Shooting Star Tommy Gun is a

pneumatic Pneumatics (from Greek 'wind, breath') is the use of gas or pressurized air in mechanical systems. Pneumatic systems used in Industrial sector, industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A centrally located a ...

machine gun manufactured by Shooting Star Inc. It was invented by Charles A. Feltman, the grandson of Charles Feltman, often credited as the inventor of the

hot dog A hot dog is a grilled, steamed, or boiled sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced bun. The term ''hot dog'' can also refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener ( Vienna sausage) or a frankfurter ( Frankfurter Würs ...

in Coney Island, New York with Feltman previously inventing a hot dog roll toaster. The first version of the game was called "Mow 'Em Down" and featured a pneumatic machine gun resembling a water cooled

heavy machine gun A heavy machine gun (HMG) is significantly larger than light, medium or general-purpose machine guns. HMGs are typically too heavy to be man-portable (carried by one person) and require mounting onto a weapons platform to be operably stable or ...

and was invented in 1939. Later Feltman modified the design to resemble a

Thompson submachine gun The Thompson submachine gun (also known as the "Tommy gun", "Chicago typewriter", or "trench broom") is a blowback-operated, selective-fire submachine gun, invented and developed by Brigadier General John T. Thompson, a United States Arm ...

with a patent granted in 1941 The weapon fires 100 .150 BBs, made of #2 lead shot. Later, a "Combat" variant was introduced, which crudely resembles a

Colt AR-15 The Colt AR-15 is a product line of magazine-fed, gas-operated, semi auto rifle manufactured by Colt's Manufacturing Company ("Colt") in many configurations. The rifle is a derivative of its predecessor, the lightweight ArmaLite AR-15, an ...

. Feltman industries operated in Coney Island for many years until it then moved to

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

and became Shooting Star Inc, as the object of the game was to shoot out all traces of a red star on a white paper card.

Gallery

File:Shooting Star Tommy Gun.jpg, The "Tommy Gun" variant. File:Shooting Star Combat gun.jpg, The "Combat" variant.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Air guns of the United States Carnival games