The gun turned out to be a recreated WWII pistol with suppressor that is famed for its silence. It’s also the most common pistol used by veterinarians nationwide.
That article disagrees with the second part of your comment. It says that the Welrod replicas are rare and mostly used by veterinarians, and looking them up, they've only been available for import to the US since 2021.
I don't know where you got your 300 million figure from. Wikipedia puts the total number of civilian firearms in the US at about 393 million, and that includes shotguns, hunting rifles, etc. The most popular pistol in the world I think is the 1911, and I imagine that holds true for veterans as well, and there have been about 4.3 million produced in the past 110 years. The most produced handgun is the Glock, estimated between 10 to 20 million guns.
It's also not confirmed that that was the pistol he used, just suspected. I saw people talking about how you'd potentially have to manually cycle a regular semi-auto pistol like he did if you were using a suppressor and subsonic rounds because they wouldn't produce enough force to cycle the gun on their own.
Edit: You fixed your comment while I was writing this, but I'm gonna leave it unedited for the info.
I read it in another article that I can’t find anymore. I deleted that line in my comment right after I searched for the source. Sorry about the misinformation.
It’s an interesting choice of gun if it turns out to be a vp9. Pretty rare, plus requires a atf tax stamp with fingerprints and a background check. If the gun isn’t stolen I think this is how they will find him.
Suppressors tend to increase chamber pressure so they usually help a pistol cycle harder but when you use subsonic ammunition, sometimes you’ll still run into issues. adding anything to a gun like a suppressor, obviously adds more points of failure. If the suppressor was homemade, it probably wouldn’t have a Nielsen device And would be more prone to jamming unless it was a single shot where the barrel doesent tilt when the gun cycles like a Ruger mark IV
Reminds me of this heartbreaking testimony of an Ukrainian woman from Eats Ukraine who wears nice underwear everyday, so that rescuers don't think ill of her while trying to resuscitate her after a Russian missile attack
I think they believe the gun was a B&T VP9. It is a pretty oddball gun, and because if it’s unique design with an integrated wiper based suppressor they are EXTREMELY quiet, but a bit inaccurate as the wipers contact the bullet on its way out. Paired with some subsonic ammo, this gun would be move style quiet and you probably wouldn’t think twice about hearing the noise it makes on a busy street. Either that or a gun hand built to a similar design. It sure seems to operate like a vp9 the way it’s single shot and by the manner he cycles the gun after each shot.