Thursday, January 05, 2006

We're the Only Ones Precautionary Enough...

Bowyer stated he was conducting a "press check" to ensure the small handgun he carried with him while off-duty was properly loaded...
It was.

When I press their triggers, my loaded guns fire, too.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok, I enjoy shooting and have been around guns my whole life (i'm 28). I am a firearms instructor and think I know what I am doing, but I don't claim to know everything, and refused to be called an expert. I have a question? Did I miss something? What is a "press check"?

Does this mean let's read the paper to see if the reporter got it right?

Or lets press the trigger and see if the gun goes off (as opposed to looking in the chamber)?

Anonymous said...

Bill-

I believe a press check is when you press or push the slide back just slightly to see if there is a round in the chamber. While holding your handgun's grip with your right hand (finger off the trigger of course), place your left hand's thumb and forefinger at the end of the slide (around the barrel opening) and push back about 1/4" or less.

Personally I think this is extremely dangerous because your exposing your left hand to the end of the barrel.

They "press check" in movies a lot because it looks cool. For example, Al Pacino's character "press checks" his handgun in the elevator in the scene where they confront Henry Rollins' character in the movie HEAT.

Anonymous said...

My guess is that this is the last that we'll hear of this story. When the gun gets checked out and no problems are discovered, it's not likely that the POlice will call any reporters and tell them that.

He probably had his thumb between the trigger and the front of the slide when he "press checked" the piece. When his hand slipped and the first found went off his thumb acted like one of those full auto rebound devices. My bet is that if you checked the thumb of his weak hand, it's bruised from the negligent discharge.

Incidentally, you can safely “press check” an auto loader by pointing it in a safe direction and racking the slide part way back with your finger in the ejection port. If you feel a round in the chamber it’s loaded. The reason for the procedure is to be able to use tactile senses without removing you eyes from a perceived threat.

There’s no reason to “press check” a pistol in your bedroom when no threat is present. You can rack the slide and check the chamber by looking at it.

What a maroon. Wonder how safe his wife will feel in the future when hubby’s got his hands on his Roscoe…

Anonymous said...

OH - I meant that he had his thumb between the trigger guard and trigger - not the slide and trigger -- me bad.

Nicki said...

The thing fired off a full load - SEVEN rounds - all by itself????

I'm finding this a bit difficult to believe.

David Codrea said...

Anonymous--that's what I was wondering--why he didn't just look--press checks are done, like you say, when you want to keep your eyes on something or if it's dark and you need to feel rather than see.

Nicki, if you read Anonymous' explanation the way I do, the guy's hands acted like a Hellfire trigger system--providing enough spring tension to keep things cycling...

Anonymous said...

Maybe he's just a really bad shot that really doesn't like his wife?

Hey, it could happen. He may be looking at this as six unlucky shots instead of one unlucky shot.

Anonymous said...

Everybody say it with me...

I love revolvers..
I love revolvers..
I love revolvers..
I love revolvers..

;-)