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Originally Posted by azande
I have a true story to relate. First I have to explain a bit about how pistols work, otherwise it won't make sense to those who don't know.
The Browning Self Loading 9 mm Pistol, as used by the British Forces, has a large moving part called "the slide". It is pulled back by hand, against a powerful spring, to **** the pistol and as it is released it picks up a round (bullet) from the top of the magazine and forces it into the breech, ready to be fired by pulling the trigger. When the round is fired, the recoil makes the slide go back and do the above itself, ready to fire again, hence "self loading". When the magazine is empty, there is a holding open device which keeps the slide locked to the rear, ready to load another magazine. This holding open device, the "slide locking lever", can be used manually to hold the pistol in the open position, for inspection (is it clean? is it empty?). So much for the lesson. . .
A certain unit in Northern Ireland decided it was a jolly good jape if you took an unloaded pistol, locked the slide back, then put a pencil down the barrel. releasing the slide locking lever then projected the pencil several feet across space. It thus became good sport to have mock gunfights around the office.
The guards on the gate, from a less well trained(!) unit heard about this and one of the lads took it upon himself to "shoot" his guard commander. He locked the slide back, put a pencil down the barrel and when the guard commander came in he aimed the pistol and simultaneously released the slide locking lever and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately the pistol was loaded at the time and so the pencil was projected out of the barrel by a bullet rather than the force of the spring. The unlucky guard commander was pinned to the wall of the guard room by the pencil and shot in the chest in quick succession. . . oops! (He lived, by the way).
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