[P8riot]

Loaded or not, it had a round chambered!

Huh? What's the difference?

[highimpact]

Loaded or not, it had a round chambered!

Huh? What's the difference?

A gun is considered loaded if there are rounds in the magazine/clip. However, it is not "ready to fire" unless a round is chambered.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

An automatic weapon does not chamber the first round in the clip until you manually retract the bolt. You can put a full clip in and pull the trigger all you want, nothing will happen. The thing that makes it automatic is that after you pull the trigger on the first round, subsequent rounds are automatically chambered. A fully automatic weapon continues to fire as long a you hold the trigger, a semi- just chambers a round.

Another danger is that once a round is chambered, removing the clip leaves the round in the chamber. You need to retract the bolt to remove it.