Point the gun to the ground. You pull the slide back, which exposes the chamber. You can plainly make out whether there's something in it or not, and see if the

Point the gun to the ground. You pull the slide back, which exposes the chamber. You can plainly make out whether there's something in it or not, and see if the cartridges are blanks or have bullets. Same thing goes for revolvers, you can just pop the cylinder and pull out a few rounds.