What if Lewis Powell's gun had fired?

[BettyO]

Possibly at that juncture, Powell was more or less wanting to just get out of the house and away. He may have known he had failed and was just concerned with getting out.

Betty, why do you think Powell tried to cut Seward's throat rather than stab him in the heart?

That's a difficult one, Linda. Some have said that the lamps were turned down really low in the room and that Powell, coming in from the more brightly lit hallway, couldn't see clearly in the more darkened room - his eyes had not adjusted quickly enough which could have been so. I have heard though, that in young people, the eyes adjust quickly while in older folk, the eyes take longer to adjust and yes, I can verify this!

But, I personally think that Lew was horror stricken to have to resort to use his knife and panicked. He simply just began to strike wildly and randomly and then he also had Robinson and others grasping him from behind and attempting to pull him off of Seward.