By now anyone reading this has probably seen the dark, grainy security footage of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson being gunned down from behind by an assailant who apparently has finally been apprehended. After every shot, the killer had to manipulate the action of his pistol, which was equipped with a suppressor; in addition to spent shell casings, live rounds were also disgorged from the weapon. Was the weapon unexpectedly malfunctioning, or were the between-the-shots manipulations a part of its regular operation? What kind of weapon was it? Even the reports of experts have been contradictory and confusing. Let’s try to bring some order out of the chaos.
Suggested reasons for a semiautomatic pistol to jam are “limp wristing,” use of subsonic ammunition, and failure to use a “booster” with the suppressor. When the frame of a semiautomatic pistol is held in a firm grip, the slide flies all the way back, causing the spent casing to be ejected and a new round loaded when the slide returns to its forward position. Held in a weak grip—“limp wrist”—the frame is pushed backward by the recoil, and the slide can’t catch up with the moving frame to reach its full rearward position; the spent casing either doesn’t get ejected all the way out, or if it is, the new round doesn’t get pushed all the way forward into the chamber. The slide has to be pulled back to clear the jam or pushed forward to seat a new round in the chamber.
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Some pistol rounds travel faster than the speed of sound, so even if the noise of the muzzle blast is suppressed, there is still a “sonic crack” as the bulled breaks the sound barrier like a miniature jet plane. When the same round is loaded with less powder to slow the bullet to subsonic speed, the round has less recoil, the recoil sometimes reduced to such a level that it can’t push the slide all the way back.
In some semiautomatic pistols, the barrel and slide are mechanically linked in such a way that when the slide is pushed back by the force of the recoil, it tilts the barrel slightly upward, this movement necessary for the proper cycling of the weapon. But if the end of the barrel has a suppressor attached to it, the weight of the suppressor can be too much for the force of the recoil to overcome, so both components stall, the slide no longer moving back, the end of the barrel no longer moving up toward its maximum tilt position. This can be corrected by a spring-loaded “booster” in the suppressor that screws onto the end of the gun barrel. The force of the muzzle blast pushes the body of the suppressor slightly forward against the spring in the booster, and the spring in the booster then snaps the suppressor body backward into place. During the split second that the body of the suppressor is moving horizontally, it is no longer exerting downward dead weight on the end of the barrel, so the slide can keep moving back and tilting the barrel up. Another name for the contraption describes this function: “linear inertial decoupler” or LID. It is also known as a Neilsen device.
Legally sold suppressors come with boosters or can be ordered with boosters, but purchasing any kind of suppressor involves ATF paperwork, something any self-respecting assassin would want to avoid. Some have opined that the suppressor was a homemade job, and homemade jobs are less likely to include a booster because of the added difficulty of fabricating them and getting them to function properly. An old Paladin Press title, Home Workshop Silencers I, features on its cover a pistol fitted with a homemade suppressor, the rig looking very much like the one used by our man. In the video footage, he seems totally unperturbed by the “jams,” as if he was anticipating them and was used to clearing them as a matter of course.
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Some reports mention “Welrod,” “veterinary pistol,” and “Station SIX.” What’s up with all that? In World War II, the British came up with a suppressed pistol called the Welrod for use in covert operations. The suppressor was built right onto the gun, and the gun was bolt action single shot, the operator having to twist and pull a bolt to open up the action, then push and twist the bolt to chamber a round. Much later the Swiss firm Brügger & Thomet (now B&T) appropriated the design of the Welrod to produce a “veterinary pistol,” the VP9, that was used to put down animals with a minimum of noise. The firm later began producing a model marketed to suppressed arms enthusiasts, the Station SIX. Proponents of the view that this was the weapon used believe that the shooter was operating the bolt, not clearing a jammed semiautomatic. Although the gun in the video looks something like the Station SIX, it visibly releases too much gas at the breech on that first shot, something that shouldn’t be happening with a single shot bolt action weapon.
And finally, one exponent of the jamming semiautomatic explanation is claiming that the shooter is a rank amateur because he cants the gun to the left to get rid of the spent brass when the ejection port is on the right. Well, are there any 9mm pistols that have the ejection port on the left? Indeed there are. The Walther P5 9mm is a case in point, and used models are available for purchase. A right hander repeatedly having to work the slide can do so more ergonomically by canting the gun to the left, pronating his right arm. So I suggest the weapon may be a Walther P5 9mm with a homemade suppressor; imagine the Paladin Press cover figure with the ejection port out of sight on the other side of the pistol, and there you have it. There are also companies out there that will weld an extension onto the end of a P5 barrel and thread it to take a suppressor.
If the man the authorities are questioning is indeed the killer, a description of his weaponry should be forthcoming, and we’ll see whose educated guess came the closest. Anyone taking bets?
