The shooter used a rare weapon with an integrated suppressor (or "Silencer" as the article indicates). A British made station six 9. I wonder if that will be the focus of investigators, since its an highly unusual weapon.
Hilarious how bad this is.
- No, it’s not the B&T. He racks it straight back, and releases to spring pressure. The Welrod/Six is twist and pull and push. It was a compact or subcompact, with either the wrong booster or no booster in a can
- There is a puff of smoke per shot on the left side of the handgun. The Six is a locked breech gun, it doesn’t really smoke per shot at the chamber, and its chamber isn’t on the left side, it is on top. Again, this was a normal likely browning style action handgun, left side action, unlocks per shot even if it doesn’t cycle fully.
- No, the B&T Six is not British made, it is a Swiss update of the WWII British Welrod
- The original and the legal term is silencer. No quotes needed.
Stop believing the media reports on anything gun related.
Isn't this speculating as well?
The point is to speculate with things that fit vs made up nonsense that is clearly untrue.
It looks like a full-size can and a subcompact to me. And I would know, because I own all those things and have used them in that configuration.
The problem I have is that anyone would PLAN on going in to a murder with no booster. Yes, it will likely work almost every time. But sometimes it won’t, and it will stovepipe, and the only way to fix it is to drop the mag out, clear, mag back in and rack.
I’m an expert, and I wouldn’t want to rely on that path.
Are we sure of the weapon type?
I've heard that there was live ammunition recovered at the scene, and that basically means the action was manually cycled to clear a jammed round.
At this point it's hard to rule out a janky weapon with homemade suppressor, or a rare specialized weapon as you suggest.
It is more likely that this is a semi-automatic pistol which will not cycle properly for one reason or another and the shooter has to manually complete the cycle by racking the slide.
Here is a video of someone firing it (not the killing):
It looks to me like a subcompact with no booster in the can. He is already dropping the gun to rack after the first shot, he knew it would need it, but it isn’t the welrod’s twist and pull.
Good for B&T sales though.
If you are firing subsonic ammunition, to avoid the loud supersonic crack, then you typically get less recoil[1] compared to a firing supersonic ammunition due to the reduced speed of the bullet.
In some firearms you can replace parts such a recoil springs to get the weapon to cycle reliably with subsonic ammunition, but if that is not done you will need to manually operate the action[2].
A few firearms even supports disabling the semi-automatic action, as the sound of the action cycling can actually be quite loud in comparison to a suppressed subsonic shot.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momentum#Classical
[2]: This can be more error-prone, if the action partially cycles.
Typically, though, you don’t necessarily get less recoil with subs. You get different recoil.
A 115gr 9mm at 1300fps as a sharp recoil. More than enough to run the gun.
A 147 / 158 / 160+ 9mm at 1000fps, has a lot of of the same energy, and typically a slower burning powder is used. It’s also enough to run the gun, the recoil is a lot longer and pushier instead of snappy.
I don’t know. If it was me, I would have my ammunition ready to cycle the gun. Yes, it’s a little bit louder, but the chance that I need to fire more than a couple of shots in order to achieve my goal and escape, outweighs the absolute sound reduction to me.
But, there is something to say that if I filled my silencer with wire, pulling gel, it was a big can, I have some ammo that I know won’t cycle, and I didn’t think I was gonna be in a place with cameras, yeah I don’t know. Maybe it was intentionally downloaded ammo.
That doesn’t mean it was a serious theory - if you have the resources of the NYPD, you might have a couple officers working on any possible angle for a case this high-profile – and it certainly wouldn’t be the first time “sources” was someone spouting off to impress a reporter.