It loses out on effective range and reload spead
Also the targets would have to be standing less than a foot away with each other

You mean AR's? :P

Those are both smgs

Wikipedia can tell you how wrong you are. The thompson is an smg and the mac fires a larger round. Did you use cod stats for research?

Pistols are also one handed but are meant to be fired with both and the mac has a stock so it can also be considered shouldered

LMAO you must be joking.....do you even know why or what the history of a thompson sub machine gun is? LMAO it fires pistol rounds not rifle rounds .45acp pistol rounds lol

I do and the stock retracts so that explains why you didn't know

ZZZzzzzZZZZzzzzZZZZzzzz ill point out whatever detail i choose to in your post it so happens i picked the one thats usually common knowledge to most 2 amendment americans but hey not all of us right?

I think this link is relevant:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Sub_Machine_Carbine

After reading the suggestion to Wiki things, I went through Wikipedia's list of SMGs. I'm openly willing to admit I don't know a lot about guns, and didn't bother to read much of that article because I don't care a whole lot about real-world guns in general. A design like that which acts as a high-RoF, CQC focused alternative to ARs would work in DUST though. It's officially, according to the creators, a "Submachine Carbine" to differentiate it from other SMGs. Compare the size to the H&K MP7 if you want to see the difference in size (although stopping power might be another matter - like I said, never read the article).

But if you want a real reason why SMGs shouldn't be primary weapons and shotguns should, here's one.

I can use a Militia Shotgun against an Advanced Heavy and have them dead before I have to reload. Against the same Heavy with a Militia SMG that has more SPs invested into it, and specifically has a 25% damage bonus that the Shotgun doesn't get, I have to reload at least once before I can get the kill, even when I'm staying close enough to land every hit.

At the moment, the whole range of ARs is well-suited to mid-range combat and decent at long-range, but with a focus on precision fire rather than volume of fire, and the whole range of SMGs are very limited in effective range with a focus on insane RoF and CQC viability. Would be nice to have some kind of middle ground - a high-RoF full-automatic primary weapon with CQC and mid-range capabilities, but NOT viable at long-range. Whether they add a new class of weapon (SMC = Submachine Carbine = heavy SMG) or a high-RoF low-accuracy AR that's less viable for long range, I don't care, but it's a gap that I'd quite like to see filled as well.

i have never been killed by the scrabler pistol as everyone uses a sub machine gun as a secondary, that i have come across. it's weird when many people use a secondary weapon (the smg) as there primary. i never see anyone with a primary as a scrabler pistol. why ? because the smg performs like a primary already.
it would need a slight increase in base range if the was changed tho. i personally find it very weird that the smg is a seconday , im assuming there will be 4 pistols at release for each faction. wich i wouldnt use , why use a pistol when i could have another machine gun.

^This. SMG is nice, but I can outshoot it easily.

If SMG's go into the main slot then snipers are ****** in CQC. Making SMG a secondary is good but maybe it should only be for scouts. Or make semi and full auto pistols. That's the only way putting the SMG in the primary only spot reasonable!