From the Eureka Police Department:
Published on Mar 15, 2016
On 03/14/16 at about 11:37 p.m., officers responded to a liquor store on the 1500 block of 5th Street for the report of a man causing a disturbance with a firearm. Upon arrival, officers found Aaron Christopher King, 25 of McKinleyville, restrained on the floor of the store by three citizens.
Officers reviewed the surveillance footage and saw King enter the store with a firearm in an attempt to rob the store. King attempted to shoot the clerk several times but the gun malfunctioned each time. The clerk fought back until a citizen came in and stripped the gun from King and held him down. Two additional citizens entered the store and assisted in holding down King until police arrived.
King was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for attempted murder, robbery, assault with a firearm, and felon in possession of a firearm. It was determined that the firearm used by King was loaded and had been reported as stolen from a residential burglary in Eureka.
In the video at 0:11, you see the clerk swatting the gun. And you can tell the scumbag..er.. Mr. King pulls the trigger several times but the gun fails to fire. I believe that the clerk’s action somehow put the gun out of battery. I wish the video was of better quality because I swear after the hit, I can see the ejection port partially open. Them Mr. Scumbag makes transforms the gun into a paperweight by improperly trying to clear the malfunction and very possibly creating a double-feed. Here is a video on how to clear a double-feed.
I am going to disagree just a bit with Charlie McNeese when he says that you should be able to clear a double feed in 6 seconds. That would be if Murphy made his presence alone, but if he brought company, it can take much longer than six seconds. I saw one incident at an IDPA match when the spent case was partially out of the chamber and the fresh round jammed under it basically latching the magazine inside the well. The shooter tried to perform the indicated clearing but couldn’t and the gun had to be taken to the Safe Area and then worked on till he was able to release the magazine. This was an obvious worst case scenario and I never saw one like that again. Double-feeds are rare, but you should still practice how to clear them. Do make sure you use practice rounds when you do so.
And somebody needs to buy a lotto ticket.
Update: Ammoland has a great article about stoppages including this picture with a double-feed.
Once upon a time I discovered that the extra-power recoil spring I’d installed, when used with ammo not as hot as carry stuff, would guarantee a double-feed every one or two magazines. Great for practice, though the first times it happened I wondered what the hell was wrong with my pistol.
Firehand, I bet the extra power recoil spring slowed the slide down and robbed it of the extra oomph it needed to pull the cases out of the chamber. Going back to the normal spring allowed the slide its normal velocity to rip the spent cases out.
Double feeds are named incorrectly. Most of the time they are failures to extract where the extractor slips off the rim of the just-fired cartridge. Then the slide feeds an unfired round from the magazine as it attempts to return to battery. They can occasionally indicate extractor tension problems or damage to the extractor hook itself.