Episode 19
Fri, 07/17/2009 - 20:15
In Episode 19, you describe Jack carrying a revolver, then have him engaging the safety before sticking it in his waistband. Revolvers do not have safeties.
Fri, 07/17/2009 - 20:53
#1
from book 2?
Is this in ep 19 of JP2?
So he'd just put the revolver right into his pants, right? OK. I can dig it.
Thanks!
Fri, 07/17/2009 - 22:28
#2
JP2
Yup, JP2, ep 19.
Yeah, modern double-action revolvers typically have a heavy trigger pull, which means it's very unlikely to accidentally go off.
BTW, double-action means that pulling the trigger will cock the hammer and fire the gun, which is why it takes so much pressure to pull the trigger. You can still thumb back the hammer (it makes the trigger pull much lighter, and therefore the shot more accurate), but you don't have to.
The revolvers you'd see Clint Eastwood or John Wayne packing in the old westerns were single-action, meaning the hammer must be cocked manually, and the trigger will only fire the gun. They don't need a safety because they won't fire without the hammer being cocked, and you wouldn't carry one around like that.
I should add that I'm talking about a safety that you can turn on and off. Nearly all modern handguns (revolvers and semi-autos) have internal safety features that require the trigger to be pulled for the gun to fire. What that essentially means is that there's very little chance of the gun firing if it's dropped.
Sun, 07/19/2009 - 11:29
#3
Though...
though we have heard of stories with modern guns going off when dropped. I actually heard a really bad one about a second hand (black market) weapon going off in a backpack when someone dropped it on the floor. Guess where the bullet went? Exactly the worst place it could've.
But the tougher trigger pull only applies to the first pull? Or all of them?
Sun, 07/19/2009 - 12:36
#4
trigger pull
If you had a gun loose in a backpack, then something could have snagged the trigger, or it could have been some piece of crap. Really old revolvers can also go off if you drop them, even the good ones.
Do you understand the difference between double and single action? If you get that, all the rest of this stuff is fairly easy to follow. If not, it won't make any sense.
On a revolver, the trigger pull is heavy every time (unless you cock back the hammer first).
On a double-action semi-auto, when you pull back the slide to chamber a round, the hammer gets cocked automatically. To carry it safely, you would then lower the hammer. Most of them have what's called a de-cocking lever. You push it, and it lowers the hammer safely, so the gun is then safe to carry. When it's time to shoot, the first shot is gonna have a really heavy (probably around 12 pounds) pull, then all the rest will be very light (4 or so). Make sense?
To confuse matters even more, Glocks are different. They use a proprietary design they call Safe Action, where it's cocked part of the way when you pull back the slide, then cocked the rest of the way when you pull the trigger. The hammer is internal, meaning you can't see it or manually raise or lower it. The trigger pull is the same (5.5 lbs) for every shot.
Sun, 07/19/2009 - 22:55
#5
Double and Single
Yeah, I got that part. Have known about this for a while. I'd thought the Glock got easier after the first shot though. Good to know it's the same every time.
Revolvers: always the same. Got it.
I guess I was firing a Beretta with Sigler (nice gun!) and that had the heavy first pull, then the normal second and onward.
Yes, in this backpack case, the gun was a total piece of crap. The spring that was supposed to make the automatic safety was broken and no one had checked it before selling it to the poor sap who wound up paralyzing a girl in his college class. A lawyer friend of mine represented the girl in the case against the gunseller, is how I heard about this.
Sun, 07/19/2009 - 23:20
#6
Wow
That's horrible. It's astounding how one small bad decision can lead to something so huge.
I hope the girl wound up a millionaire.
Mon, 07/20/2009 - 09:52
#7
The odds!!
Yeah. It was insane. What're the odds?
It was a used gun that a security guard bought on his own because people from the place he was security were threatening to follow him home, etc. He was taking a class in hairdressing (of all things!) and had the gun in his backpack because he was going to work after. I forget the model, but it had a built in safety like that (trigger kind) and the re-sell company hadn't tested them effectively before selling them, so the spring had broken or something.
He dropped the backpack in the classroom and then--literally what're the odds of this--the bullet went through a girl's chair and hit her spine dead on in a way that paralyzed her for life. Fucking nuts!
So in this case, you feel terrible for the poor security guard and the girl!
And the company who had sold him the gun (online) wound up with a huge lawsuit.
Zing!
Got this from a guy who lives near me. We both walk our dogs in the same place. Don't even know each other's names (I always forget his) but we know our dogs' names and talk a bit.
S
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