The friend, 14, said he only wanted to show off his father’s Beretta 92 Compact L handgun. He had taken the precaution of removing a clip of live rounds to replace it with an empty one, but there was still a bullet in the chamber when he pulled the trigger to show Kenzo.
The fact that he could do that means that he knew nothing about the way semi-automatic handguns work, not to mention nothing about basic firearms safety. Ignorance + recklessness = tragedy.
Indeed, Mr. Dix does blame the gun in the death of his son — had there been a better indicator that a bullet was in the chamber, perhaps his son would be alive. To that point, Mr. Dix has sued Beretta three times, ultimately losing. The irresponsible behavior, jurors decided, could have happened no matter how the gun was designed.
The Beretta 92 does have a loaded chamber indicator. There's no reason to believe that someone so lacking in basic firearms knowledge would even know where to look for it, much less understand what it does/shows. Loaded chamber indicators are a poor substitute for the best way to determine actual chamber status, which is to open the action and look. I would never trust an indicator. When in doubt, rack it and see if it ejects anything.
In any case, it is a
loaded chamber indicator, not an
unloaded chamber indicator. Its purpose is to tell the shooter, "OK, you don't have to rack the slide to charge the gun; it's already charged, and racking it will just throw a perfectly good cartridge in the dirt." Its purpose is NOT to tell the shooter, "OK, it's now OK to stick the gun in your friend's face and pull the trigger." That is never OK, indicator or no.