According to the police, Trayvon was shot once in the chest, one shell casing was found on the ground and the magazine was still full. This is not how semi-automatics work. When a semi-automatic weapon is fired, the bullet travels out the barrel, the slide cycles backward ejecting the empty shell and another round is drawn from the magazine and inserted in the chamber ready to fire. So each time the trigger is pulled, a shell is ejected and another round is placed in the chamber until the magazine is empty. At that point, the slide remains locked in the open position, waiting to be cycled manually. If the stories are being reported accurately (and given the news media’s consistent lying in this case that’s certainly not a given), then this is not normal behavior.
There is a way to fire a round without cycling the slide. If you put a hand on the slide to hold it in place and then pull the trigger, you can prevent the normal cycle. In that case, the magazine would remain full.
If Trayvon was grabbing the gun, this could explain the situation.
I have never kept a magazine full. Just my preference.
There is a way to fire a round without cycling the slide. If you put a hand on the slide to hold it in place and then pull the trigger, you can prevent the normal cycle. In that case, the magazine would remain full.
If Trayvon was grabbing the gun, this could explain the situation.
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Another possibility would be Zimmerman bracing the rear of the pistol against his body which would prevent the action from fully cycling.....
Which seems more likely: that a semi-auto firearm would cycle well enough to completely eject a round without stove-piping, but not enough to strip a round from the magazine, or that a firearm with e.g. a ten-round magazine would be described as having a "fully loaded" magazine if it had nine in the mag and one in the chamber [I don't remember the actual capacity of Mr. Zimmerman's pistol]? While I suppose certain firearms might possibly short-cycle as described, and Mr. Zimmerman might have had such a weapon, it seems more likely that the language of the report was chosen to make clear that the firearm could not have been fired twice since it was last loaded, than to describe an unusual malfunction mode.
Which seems more likely: that a semi-auto firearm would cycle well enough to completely eject a round without stove-piping, but not enough to strip a round from the magazine, or that a firearm with e.g. a ten-round magazine would be described as having a "fully loaded" magazine if it had nine in the mag and one in the chamber [I don't remember the actual capacity of Mr. Zimmerman's pistol]? While I suppose certain firearms might possibly short-cycle as described, and Mr. Zimmerman might have had such a weapon, it seems more likely that the language of the report was chosen to make clear that the firearm could not have been fired twice since it was last loaded, than to describe an unusual malfunction mode.