Rifles are heavy!

I only know about the Lee Enfield and later British rifles, a heavy weapon will absorb recoil better so helping to prevent the round being ‘snatched’ by movement of the rifle before the round has left the barrel.

Adding a bayonet shifts the already heavy rifles centre of balance further forward (fulcrum/pivot action) and caused a tendency for the barrel to drop, better precision is done by supporting the length of the barrel fully - we used to adopt lots of firing positions to hold the weapon firmly and allow it to naturally point to the target, for longer ranges though you really need a forward support which is why nearly all sniper rifles now have bipods to support the end - a bayonet would have just made it harder to hold and I doubt the added weight would have made much difference for recoil purposes

Another attempt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Px0wErIeJI

HA, found it:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1992/EWL.htm

A study on what the “optimum” carry weight is for the footsoldier, how every top brass understands that it should be less than the current state, but that over the years, effectively, the soldier had to carry more and more…

And a bit more on topic; the first time I (as a kid) learned of the Thompson SMG was in comics and movies where heroes fired the thing from one hand.
Not until I finally laid hand on a real Thompson SMG in a(nother) museum that I felt cheated by these entertainment industries (this was before all the internet & youtube ability to search all kinds of info…).
Example: http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics171.html

More on soldiers’ carrying loads.
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=399906

Out of curiosity I looked up the weights of some of the standard infantry rifles.

US Rifles

M1 Garand 9.5 LBS
03A3 8.7 LBS
Thompson M1A1 10.6 LBS
M1 Carbine 5.2 LBS
M1918 BAR 15.98 LBS

Post WW2 Rifles
M14 9.2 LBS
M16 7.18 LBS

UK RIFLES

Lee Enfield 8.8 LBS
Bren LMG 22.83 LBS
Lanchester SMG 9.57 LBS
Sten SMG 7.1 LBS

Post War

FN FAL 8.6 - 9.48 LBS (Long Rifles)

USSR

Mosin Nagant 91/30 8.8 LBS
M44 9.0 LBS
PPSh-41 8.0 LBS
PPD-40 7.1 LBS
SVT-40 8.5 LBS

Post War

SKS 8.5 LBS
AK-47 6.8 LBS

Germany

K98k 8.2 LBS
FG-42 10.9 LBS
STG-44 10.0 LBS
MP-40 8.75 LBS

Firearms weights of interest or for comparison:

Brown Bess Long Land Pattern 10.5 LBS (Smooth Bore Muzzle Loading)

1847 US Walker Colt Pistol Revolver 4.5 LBS (Six Shot Black Powder)