@orangutanklaus: That reminds me in the Nazi book burnings in 1933. Heinrich Heine said years befor: "Where books are burned, men will be burned in the end" (if I translated that correctly). He was right.

Nice feature, but an experiment in human nature...

Chambering bullets will not work (only with a revolver). You will have to find a magazine.

How do you know your pistol is pristine? There is no status shown.

Maybe your weapon is broken. There is no "pristine" status because there is no status or description at all (@TheCreativeMan).

If you took the weapon off a dead player, it's surely broken.

It's like in real life. You're hungry, but you manage to eat something rotten. You get sick and you die.
You could have asked someone how to cure it (like other players/human beings or uncle google) but you didn't. That's called natural selection.

@Subject42: You have to eat or drink until you receive a message like "My stomach feels full". Not more!
If you do eat and drink enough your health will _slowly_ become better. It just takes some time until you're healthy.

Works in Rev. 0.29.113822 (your game version). Just take the can in your hand and open it.
Better use a knife: less spilled, axe stays sharp.