Pistol (Charlie's gun)

Charlie Decker's pistol is the engine of the hostage crisis at Placerville High School, a stolen .22-caliber handgun that he uses to kill two teachers, hold twenty-four classmates captive, and ultimately survive a sniper's bullet when the padlock in his breast pocket stops the round. The weapon's trajectory—from its theft from his father's desk drawer to its final discharge by police—tracks the escalation and collapse of Decker's violent rebellion.

Origin and Theft

Decker takes the pistol from his father's study, where it had been stored behind a box of business envelopes in a desk drawer. He also takes a box of Winchester .22 long-rifle shells, replacing them with the ammunition he had previously collected. The mounted deer head on the study wall stares down at him as he commits the theft, but he does not let it bother him; the deer is not the one his father killed on the hunting trip when Decker was nine. He shoves the pistol into his belt and puts the shells in his pants pocket, feeling "like Wild Bill Hickok." The weapon had been in the house for ten years, and Decker doubts his father even remembered it was still there.

First Use: The Shooting of Mrs. Underwood

Decker carries the pistol into Room 16 concealed in his belt. When Mrs. Underwood asks if he has an office pass, he replies "Yes," takes the pistol out, and shoots her in the head. He is not even sure it is loaded until it goes off. She falls sideways onto her desk and then rolls onto the floor, the expectant expression never leaving her face. The shot creates an "indescribable moment of silence, an infinite duration of time" before the class registers what has happened.

Second Use: The Shooting of Mr. Vance

When Mr. Vance opens the classroom door in response to the fire alarm, Decker picks up the gun and orders him out. Vance does not understand; Decker shoots at him and misses, the bullet chipping wood splinters from the door. Vance still does not retreat, so Decker fires a second bullet that catches him in the throat. Vance walks backward into the hall, scratching at his throat, and falls over. The class watches his scratching motions slow down.

Control and Negotiation

Decker uses the pistol to maintain control of the classroom throughout the three-hour standoff. He fires a bullet through the chicken-wired glass beside Mr. Johnson's head when the teacher tries the door. He shoots into the floor to make Don Grace believe he has killed a hostage, breaking the psychiatrist's composure. When the police rush the building after the sniper's shot, Decker fires twice to drive them back, then fires a fourth shot into the air when Frank Philbrick hesitates. He reloads the pistol multiple times, keeping it pointed at the class while he works the clip.

The Sniper's Bullet and Titus the Padlock

State policeman Daniel Malvern, positioned behind a cruiser on the lawn, fires a Mauser rifle with a telescopic sight from the prone position. The bullet strikes Decker's breast pocket, directly over his heart. But the slug hits the hard steel of Titus, the Helpful Padlock—the combination lock Decker had earlier rescued from a wastebasket and placed in his pocket. The bullet smashes through the high-density plastic dial, sending bits of shrapnel through his shirt, but not one touches his flesh. The steel behind the face catches the slug, turning it into a "deadly lead blossom with three bright petals." The lock is twisted as if by fire, the semicircular lock bar pulled like taffy, the back side bulged but not broken through. The class gasps "Aaahhh!" when Decker pulls the mangled lock from his pocket.

Final Discharge and Aftermath

After the hostages are released, Decker sits beside the catatonic Ted Jones. When Philbrick enters the room, Decker makes as if to grab something behind Mrs. Underwood's desktop row of books and plants, screaming "Here it comes, you shit cop!" Philbrick shoots him three times. The pistol is later found unloaded in the top desk drawer, placed there by Decker himself before the students left. The weapon that had killed two people and held a classroom hostage ends its role in the crisis not in Decker's hand but in a drawer, its final shots fired by the police.