Röhm RG-14

The Röhm RG-14 is a double-action, six-shot revolver chambered in .22, formerly manufactured and sold by Röhm Gesellschaft of Sontheim/Brenz, Germany. It is notable for being the model of firearm used by John Hinckley Jr. to shoot Ronald Reagan on 30 March 1981.^[1] Until 1968, the guns were manufactured in Germany. The Gun Control Act of 1968 prevented their import unto the US, so subsequently they were manufactured at a Röhm factory in Miami.

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

The RG-14 is known colloquially as a Saturday night special, a general category of cheap, low quality handguns. The frame is made from zinc alloy, with a steel barrel cylinder, hammer and trigger. It was intended to use .22 Short, Long, or Long Rifle cartridges.

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.

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.

References

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.