The Nambu pistol is a recoil operated, locked breech, semi-automatic pistol. The Type A and 14 Nambus have a magazine capacity of 8 rounds, whereas the Type B had 7. A common flaw in the series was that the gun's safety catch and its magazine release did not enable the magazine to slide out of the gun once it was completely empty, forcing the operator to work against the weight of the recoil spring and leaf spring, making reloading needlessly difficult. In response to this issue, the magazine catch was removed from the Type 14. Another issue with the safety was that it was located just above the trigger guard, meaning that it could not be activated with the same hand that was holding the pistol.