eli5, How can you tell if a gun is unjammed without shooting it?

Question

I like writing as a hobby and posting it online, just wanted to try get the best up to date info and couldn’t find anything

In: 1

Answer 1

You look at it. No, seriously. Visual inspection. Depending on the gun, you open the action (such as pulling back the slide) and inspect the chamber and identify the cause of the jam. You then clear the jam using the appropriate method (such as removing the magazine and letting the round fall out), chamber a new round, and you’re unjammed.

This doesn’t mean that the gun won’t jam if you fire it again, but if the chamber is cleared and you can cycle a new round, it’s not jammed (then).