The pistol Morgan wields and with which he shoots Bramwell is a single shot percussion pistol. It must be manually cocked by pulling the hammer back. When he points it at Bramwell and fires, the hammer is not cocked so the pistol could not fire. Further, once he shoots Bramwell the pistol is empty and cannot fire again unless it is reloaded, yet he successfully uses it threatening to shoot Catherine. Any adult of the period would know the gun was empty.