Practical Eschatology: Why Did The Killer's Gun Jam?

Monday, December 9, 2024

Why Did The Killer's Gun Jam?

There has been some speculation that the weapon used in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was a B&T Station Six 9mm pistol (formally known as the VP-9), a handgun based on World War II-era Welrod pistol. The Welrod used an integral silencer, while the Station Six uses a removable silencer, but both are manually cycled bolt action handguns.

The consensus among most of the gun-tubers I follow is that the weapon used was not a Welrod or Station Six, but that it was a standard semi-auto handgun with a homemade silencer or older model of silencer attached--hence the cycling issues experienced by the operator. Here are few analyses:

First up, Ian at Forgotten Weapons categorically dismisses the idea that the weapon was a Welrod or a modern equivalent, but concludes that it was a semi-auto pistol poorly set up with a silencer that malfunctioned on every shot.

VIDEO: "United Healthcare: Not a Welrod"--Forgotten Weapons (1 min.)

Next, Garand Thumb tests different theories and weapons, and also concludes that the most likely explanation was a semi-auto pistol with a home built sound suppressor that simply did not cycle after each of the rounds fired:

VIDEO: "Debunking The UnitedHealthcare Assassination Myths"
Garand Thumb (16 min.)

Third, the VSO Gun Channel explores the issue of why the weapon jammed after every shot and concluded that it was because the silencer used by the assassin did not incorporate a Nielsen device, which is intended to assist cycling when using a sound suppressor on a pistol using the Browning tilting barrel design (although I would note that the Garand Thumb video found that modern suppressors that were light weight would still work without a Nielsen device).