Term

Malfunction

Any failure of a firearm to fire, feed, extract, or eject as intended.

Also: jam, stoppage

A malfunction (or stoppage) is anything that interrupts the firing cycle: failure to fire, failure to extract, failure to eject, double feed, out of battery. Each has a specific cause and correction. The first response to most malfunctions is tap-rack-bang (or tap-rack-assess in defensive contexts).

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