Okay, I've Googled and seen slow motion video etc. of people firing guns under water*, so I do know it's possible, but I still have a question (and given how much interest the last similar topic inspired this seemed like a good place to ask it).
The set-up: A military automatic rifle such as might be found on a U.S. naval vessel - in this case a destroyer. (I assume that they would have some such weapons on board wouldn't they? Anyone know specifically what we might find?) In a scene I'm editing I was thinking of having one character to show another how the gun is used while they are under water (I'm not interested in hitting anything with the bullets, I'm just interested in having the gun fire).
The thing is, we're not talking shooting a few feet down in a swimming pool in this scene, the characters are some hundreds of feet beneath the surface (you'll have to read it to find out how this can be
). Will it fire or might it explode in their hands?
* Amusing side note: search in Duck Duck Go for "firing guns deep under water" gives links talking about "Smoke on the Water" and "Under the Gun" by Deep Purple not very far down the list. Ah, that takes me back. 