The Röhm RG-14 is a double-action, six-shot revolver chambered in .22 LR formerly manufactured and sold by Röhm Gesellschaft of Sontheim/Brenz, Germany.

A Röhm RG-14 displayed at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, similar to the one John Hinckley Jr. used in the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.

One was used by John Hinckley Jr. to shoot Ronald Reagan on 30 March 1981.[1] The RG-14 is known as a Saturday night special, a general category of cheap, low quality handguns.

The RG-14 was available in a snubnose configuration with a 1.5-inch (3.8 cm) barrel as well as a more typical configuration with a 3-inch (7.6 cm) barrel.

The RG-14 had a swing-out cylinder that was secured to the frame by a pin that passed through its length, rather than a latch under the barrel as commonly found in double-action revolvers.[2] In order to load the weapon, the user had to unscrew and remove the pin, swing the cylinder open and insert a round into each chamber, then snap it shut and screw the pin back into place. The RG-14 also did not have an ejector, meaning that each spent casing or unfired round had to be manually pushed out of the cylinder with the pin or a similar tool during unloading/reloading.

References edit

  1. ^ Delahanty v. Hinckley, 564 A.2d 758 (D.C.App. 1989), judgment hosted by Carnegie Mellon University here. Also available here.
  2. ^ Marshall, Tom (2022-02-03). "The RG-14 Revolver: The Gun that Got the Gipper". Recoil. Retrieved 2022-03-16.