Tex McIver

The gun was still in the bag.

Law enforcement analyst and former police officer Vincent Hill says a guy like Tex should have known better.

And Hill is not alone in his opinion.

That's why I asked former Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Burt Davis to take me out to a gun range not far from Texas Ranch.

I wanted to understand the gun.

The handgun, which only shoots one bullet at a time, can be fired in two very different ways, single action or double action.

Either way, it does not look good for Tex, because experts say this gun only goes off if the trigger is pulled.

In single action, the shooter pulls back the hammer, like this.

With the gun already cocked in this position, it hardly takes any effort at all to pull the trigger.

It only takes about two pounds of pressure to actually pull the trigger, which is why experienced gun owners say you only cock this gun if you know you are about to use it.

No one that I know of would sit there with a gun in single action.

A double action is a different story.

This gun is not loaded, but I want to show you what happens.

In double action, you pull the trigger and the gun automatically pulls the hammer back, rotates the cylinder, and fires.

But it's not easy because it takes about 12 pounds of pressure to actually pull the trigger, making it much harder to fire it accidentally.

It would be difficult.

But not impossible.

But not impossible.

But somehow, that gun was fired.

And to this day, techs cannot answer this question.