How To Recognize An Empty Gun (Could Save Your Life!)

1. Ah Caleb. To you it as though revolvers don’t exist. We should also note that a fully loaded revolver will display the bullet tips in the exposed end of the cylinder, though you can’t see the one in the chamber.
   I don’t know if most assailants fire double action with revolvers or if they fire single action. If double action, then you can see whether there’s a bullet about to rotate into position, even if the gun is partly empty. It may rotate from either direction depending on the make, so of course we need to look at the top of both sides and if there’s one there then it will probably fire.
   If single action you’re in bigger trouble because an excitable finger on a 4# trigger is a bad deal, plus you can’t see what’s in the chamber – though a hint would be if you see any bullets from the front it’s probably loaded.
   Counting shots works great – except we have 5, 6, 8, and even 10 shot revolvers.
   However since revolvers, being very accurate and extremely dependable, are passé so we need not worry.
   On another note, I’ve seen some pistols with s ‘loaded chamber indicator.’ What do you think of these? Seems a good idea, but the ones I’ve seen didn’t seem very digital – yes / no – to me even when shooting, much less as viewed from the wrong end.

   • JEEEZE! So All you wannabe chairborne rangers are actually going to stand there and possibly waste the last few precious seconds of your life analyzing if the mother fucking gun is loaded or not…are yah?

     If you were religionistically predisposed, you should be Thanking GAWD these incidents don’t occur too often in relative odds making. Otherwise, with this kind of critical time wasting more tombstones would be reading. ‘here lies Mr. Scrutiny eyes, who wasted valuable tactical time trying to figure out if the robber had a loaded gun, before he dies.’.

     And of course as I’ve always made a good living putting my money where my mouth is, I’ll bet even the most nit picking ‘authorities’ on checking an armed robber’s gun in your face to ‘see’ if it’s loaded in battery, like Jim here, will be way too busy controlling his bladder and nervously complying (or not) to even think about checking and focusing clearly enough to see if the gun in this big brute-ass’s ham fist is going to fire or not. If he even has time to do anything!

     Besides, this was a freakish one in many thousands of a likelihood of happenings. Far more common are robbers who use a realistic looking bb gun. which can actually hurt you pretty badly if shot at your face, or more likely, an unloaded automatic where you couldn’t tell if it was loaded anyway in normal presentation and movement, especially in poor light.

     Do yourself a huge favor and don’t even get into a mindset about first ascertaining if the gun somebody is pointing at your head is ready to fire, or not.

     Brand this on your cerebral cortex instead: Don’t think of anything else but getting out of danger or at least the line of fire by either taking him out first if you have a pistol and the wherewithal or complying and redirecting his shooting focus on you as a target.

     Because you Must assume that ALL guns pointed at you in a robbery attempt are real and loaded. You don’t play stupid games of trying to ‘guess’ if it’s not loaded. You STILL could be WRONG and DEAD, if you did something stupid because you THOUGHT it wasn’t loaded?

     I personally, and most of my advanced students, wouldn’t even be looking too closely at the gun in detail.
     The first instant I saw it, my subconscious autopilot would take over and do the probability of success math in a nano second and before the moron could even see the move., let alone react to it, I’d be using the gun that he doesn’t have anymore because it’s now in my hand for a proctology exam to emancipate his brains from his ass. permanently.

     Might even ‘Shoot him in the Dick’ while i’m in the area just for good measure!

     • Your “advice” is absolutely wrong on so many levels.

       • Thank you! You beat me to the same comment. Wrong on sooooooo many levels!

         • But nobody wants to explain those ‘levels’, and why they’re wrong, LOL!

2. Also, something not mentioned is that if the gun is close enough, one can grab the slide and push back on it, effectively opening the chamber, thus preventing the firing pin from being able to strike the primer. Also with a revolver, if someone could be so lucky, to be able to block the hammer from hitting the firing pin would be extremely hard but is also possible.
   Thanks for all the info. It could save a few lives, or better yet, give us CCW time to draw and fire.

   • Robert. those tactics are obsolete. mainly because someone holding an automatic could usually react by quickly pulling back the gun away and actually recycling the slide and firing. And with a revolver simply gripping the cylinder will not always stop it from firing. you have to get a finger or grip between the hammer as it’s cocked. Which is pretty hard to do before it can easily be fired. If someone is of the mindset that they’ll go for a disarm/take out. if suddenly surprised with a gun point at them within arms reach. They should learn proper techniques and train/practice regularly.

3. Jimmy John’s gun is jammed not empty .
   Look at the pictures you can see barrel in the ejection port of Jimmy John’s and not on the empty gun !

4. The clerk is in the best position to see just exactly what the deal is, as noted he is blase about the whole thing which does indicate he knows the gun is not in battery and capable of firing. It appears to be a type 3 malfunction, which wold be a little more difficult for a person not familiar with one to clear it. Someone properly trained is still going to take a couple of seconds to get it done, someone untrained, as it appears the robber is untrained and it would take considerable longer if he was capable at all. If he knew what he was doing he would have properly racked the slide at the time or would have already had the gun loaded before he even walked thru the door, odds are he is untrained and incapable of dealing with it. The only thing he saved was the sound of the slide being properly racked, which if your are going to rob the place is a moot point and would serve to get everyone’s attention. The question at hand, is should the clerk have given him the money or hit him in the face with the cash drawer? Ir is a gamble.

5. Has anyone identified what model pistol was used in the robbery? I do not believe it was a striker fired pistol but I could be wrong. Why would the robber bring an unchambered pistol in the store and then be so careless with his handling of a firearm? I guess if he had an accidental discharge and killed a young clerk then that would have been fine with him but he was also afraid he might shoot himself before the criminal act.

6. Someone stated that if you want to spend the last seconds of your life analyzing whether a pistol is loaded or not…

   Actually, keeping a cool head is precisely what you want to do.

   Pistols and revolvers can easily be taken away from most assailants, but only if you know what you’re doing. There are easy ways to keep pistols from firing; similarly, unless a revolver is cocked, it can readily be stopped from firing.

   If the pistol or revolver is within reach, it can (1) be taken away easily and readily; and (2) deflected so that you cannot be harmed before the assailant can react.

   An assailant wants you to ‘lose your head’ and react in panic. A panicked victim is easy to rob, one reason why they scream at you while pointing a weapon at you.

   If you want to be a victim, by all means, do so. Unless you’re specifically trained, it’s better to comply with your assailant and do what they want: hopefully, they won’t take your life anyway.

   If you don’t want to be a victim, get training in military lethal self-defense and learn how SEALs, Army special forces, and Air Force special ops personnel are trained to disarm an assailant — and develop proficiency and skill at arms.

   You can also learn to carry a concealed weapon and not be a victim. A practiced shooter can hit two different targets, 90° apart, with two hits to each target’s center of mass, within 1.4 seconds — with training and practice. Knowing how and when is vital to your survival, especially as disaffected and radical minorities are planning a summer of violence.

7. This article and the comments were all very interesting, informative and helpful I have permits for carry and have done so. The way the crime is, I think I should start again.

8. Thank You for sharing !!

9. IF you have a revolver pointed at you all you have to do is look in the cylinder and see if it i loaded you can see the shells from the front of it.

10. in a revolver you can see the bullets in the cylinder if it is pointed at you. But why would you take the time looking, and not acting out your plan for protection. YOU would look at the cylinder and BANG, IF IT IS LOADED

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