Brooke Cheney from GreatStart Shooting School shows how to check if a semi-automatic pistol is empty. Remove the magazine, lock the slide back, and visually inspect the chamber. A foundational safety step before handling any firearm.
Hey! Welcome to a GreatStart Shooting School's how-to video. This is our first one, so bear with us. My name is Brooke Cheney. I'm a firearms instructor and competitive shooter, and all I care about is safety, safety, safety. This is a gun. What would you do if you found this gun? Why, yes, that's the first question you should be asking. Is it empty? And let's find out. It's relatively simple. You want to look for two important things on a semi-automatic: your magazine release and your slide lock. When you push the magazine release in, the magazine actually comes out. The slide lock is the next part. You're going to push that up in order to hold the slide back. What part is the slide? Oh, it's right here. That's the slide. Now, while you're holding the gun with your left hand, put your thumb on the slide lock, then find homes for all the rest of your fingers. Now grab the slide from the top and push in opposite directions while your thumb is pushing up to hold the slide back. Once the slide's back, it's time to look to see if your gun is really empty. These are dummy rounds that you could just see in the chamber. When it's empty, this is what it should look like— nothing in there at all. That's your goal. Congratulations! Well, thanks for watching. It's quick, it's dirty. You may or may not have caught everything that I just taught, so by all means go to agreatstartshootingschool.com or agsss.com and book a class for me. I look forward to seeing you.
