I do not own a gun. I don’t plan to own a gun. Yet last winter, my SO and I took a 2 night class (8hrs, including 2hrs on a range) on handgun safety and handling. I took it pretty much for the “Ok, I have the gun, now what the heck do I do with it” factor. I still don’t think I could shoot a person, but paper targets now fear me. I am fairly comfortable with the idea that I could, with a few minutes to look it over, figure out how to engage the safety and/or remove the ammunition from most common handguns, without being a hazard to myself or others.
It was a pretty good use of $35, and I highly recommend something like this to anyone that is unfamiliar with handguns and has a couple of free evenings.
Removing the slide on some guns is mighty tricky. My Sig Pro, for example, requires a pretty elaborate dance: remove the magazine and clear the chamber if necessary. Pull the slide back and lock it. Now, grip the slide by fully grasping around it with your right hand, so that your wrist is against the back of the handle, preventing the slide from moving forward. Slowly ease the slide forward until the visible notch on the left side is just above the slide lock lever. With your left hand, reach around to the right side of the frame and push in on the opposite side of the slide lock lever. It will release with a little “click”. Bring your left hand back around to the left side and pull the slide lock lever completely out of the frame. Set aside. Slowly ease the slide forward again, releasing spring tension, until the slide is back in its normal position. The slide is now free and can be slid off the front of the gun easily.
In Ohio, you would be committing a crime yourself if you immediately shot a bad guy after disarming him. If you’re no longer in imminent danger of injury or death yourself, most states don’t let you ventilate the bad guy right after turning the tables. Once he’s woken up and is coming at you with a knife, you could shoot him if you reasonably had no other alternative. But be prepared to explain yourself to police, a prosecutor and, if you weren’t too persuasive, eventually a judge or jury (if you choose to testify).
You had to wrestle the weapon from an unconscious assailant? :eek:
I would question if you have the muscle strength to rack the slide or even pull the trigger on most consumer grade automatics.
In all seriousness, take a gun safety course. You won’t have to acquire a firearm and you won’t be forcefully indoctrinated into the cult of firearm worship. What you will gain is some knowledge about firearms that is powerful to have regardless of you ever having any interest in owning one.
<jbdivmstr talking to PO> “And after I wrestled the gun away from him he charged me as if to try and get it back. I was afraid that he might, so I shot him.” End of story.
Yeah, I would bet that if it was you doing the disarm, the bad guy is probably gonna need some serious medical attention, maybe even a few days in the hospital. But, not everybody is a Black Belt and a Taekwondo instructor, Clothahump.
But just for the “sake of argument”, (and assuming there aren’t any “witnesses”, of course) I’m still going to give some serious thought to removing the possibility of the bad guy learning from his mistakes and doing a better job, the next time he decides to commit whatever crime he was attempting in the first place. Know what I mean? :dubious:
kid of agree kind of disagree. i’m pulling the magazine. but then i am clicking away at shit for brains right between the eyes to ensure that there is nothing in the chamber. but i am holding on to the magazine just in case. and for goodness’ sakes i ain’t visually checking the chamber to see if something is in there or not. i can satisfy my curiosity by pulling the durn trigger.
I’m probably repeating some answers, but what the hell.
The magazine release is typically on the left side right by the thumb. Simply depress it and if the magazine does not fall out on its own (not all do) pull it out. some have the release on the butt of the grip, latching into the bottom rear of the magazine, but that is very uncommon on newer handguns.
Yes, provided you remove the magazine first. If you don’t you’ll simply chamber the next round. While the slides may differ (blowback-action slides are lighter but have much more resistance due to the heavier spring, for example) operating the slide through its full travel will always eject a round from the chamber.
Little-known fact: if someone is pointing a gun at you and you have the ability to reach it, simply grabbing it by the slide and taking it out of battery will render it incapable of firing. With some it’s as simple as putting your hand on the end of the muzzle and pushing in. I wouldn’t recommend trying this, mind you, but it does illustrate how easy it is to disable a semi-automatic handgun, at least temporarily. If you practice you can disassemble a police-issue Beretta in about a half a second while it’s in his hand, take the slide right off the weapon. I’ve seen it done by my SPs during weapons training.
But I digress. Anyway…
That’s much more complicated. It varies from weapon to weapon, and a great deal of modern handguns have no external safeties. If you take a Glock off the guy there is no external safety. Some, but not all SigSauers and HKs have external safeties. Almost all Rugers have them (excepting the LCP). Revolvers have no safeties unless you’re being attacked by a guy with a rare and expensive Webley-Fosbery.
They are not standardized at all. This is part of the reason that gun people like having many different guns, because they’re all different.
If you don’t know what he has we can’t be specific, so use your best judgment.
