Colt design engineer Henry A. Into recalled that they wanted a selective-fire weapon as the basis of their replacement for the M1911A1. Colt designers looked at smallest submachine guns of the day (including the Czech Škorpion vz.
61, and Uzi) and tinkered with making full-auto versions of high-magazine-capacity pistols (such as the Browning Hi-Power). They eventually settled on an in-house design, Into recalled, which was a gas-operated, locked-breech weapon with select-fire capability, including three-shot burst. The SCAMP's magazine had a similar capacity to a submachine gun, of 27 rounds.