..he apparently never thought out his escape, even to the obvious point of bringing his revolver to work with him so that he would have it to defend and extricate himself from any possible confrontation with the authorities .. he went back to his room and got his revolver.
After he had already 'escaped'
Assumptions, presumptions, suppositions, and just plain wild guesses and inventing various scenarios can work just about any way you want.
Coulda..woulda...shoulda held back a couple of dollars and gone to the nearest sporting goods and bought another box of shells for a real battle.