re: The Tiger King (Netflix Docuseries)

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So I didn’t quite get exactly what happened with Travis’ death. Was it a suicide on purpose or by accident? The build up before that scene seems to show Travis was very unstable and apparently methed the frick out all the time. Was he jokingly pointing the gun at his own head and accidentally pulled the trigger not thinking it would fire? Or did he know the gun would fire?

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He was a candidate for suicide, but it looked like an accident. What he did is, unfortunately, not uncommon.

He had a semi-auto pistol with a round in the chamber. He took the magazine out and told the campaign manager how it was a Ruger so it would not fire with the magazine out. (The Texas Monthly article said Travis had read this on the internet.)

Well, most semi-autos will fire even with the magazine removed. Some models have what is called a magazine disconnect safety that prevents firing without the magazine. But it is only recently--due to dumbasses like Travis--that more gun makers have started to include it.

Ruger does include the feature on some models, but there are zillions of Rugers out there without it. Many owners disable the feature, so you can't assume it works in a given gun you pick up. The feature is disliked by many. American Rifleman article on magazine disconnects

A girl was killed in north LA a few years ago because a guy thought a Glock had a magazine disconnect. He was going to scare her, so he took the magazine out, pointed the gun at her and pulled the trigger. Boom! She's dead.

They should do public service announcements on TV showing how many pistols will fire even with the magazine removed. Too many people shoot themselves and others because of ignorance on the issue.