62334
Like to get some opinions about this passage, speaker is in a situation where
only he has a gun (kept in secret so far), but might be forced to reveal his
hand soon. Has to deal with the 不良 sooner or later.

> （そうだ。何も本当に撃つ必要はないんだ。拳銃がどんなものかは、他の連中も知ってる。こいつは……抑止力としても使えるんじゃないか？）
>
> つまりは脅しだ。
>
> 実際に撃たなくても、撃つそぶりを見せていれば相手は最悪の場合を想定せざるを得ない。
> _この拳銃に弾がいくつ入っているかはわからないが、弾がなくなって、さらに **それ**
> が周知になるまでは、あの不良どもだって従わざるを得ない絶対の抑止力になるはずだった。_

... no need to fire, use as threat/deterence...

_i don't know haw many bullets are in this gun, if i run out, even worse, if
"that" becomes common knowledge, i expect even those delinquents will be under
absolute deterrence as they have no choice to but to comply._ - (, the
sentence will makes sense, depending on what "that" is )

* * *

I think ehe issue in question here is the それ in それが周知になるまでは

At a glance i would expect それ to be [弾がなくなって], but that makes no sense, but
because there's no deterrence potential if everyone knows that the gun has no
bullets.

So それ seems to be referring to something along the lines of "the fact that I
have a gun" for [あの不良どもだって従わざるを得ない絶対の抑止力になるはずだった] to make sense

What exactly is それ referring to here, and if someone only read up to
さらにそれが周知になるまでは, would that know exactly what それ is referring to in this
situation?

Thank you
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-20T22:05:10.343
62304
2018-10-22T08:51:10.997
2018-10-20T22:18:49.513
22187
22187
question
parsing subjects
unclear designation of それ　in this passage
This それ does refer to 弾がなくなったこと, or the fact that the bullets have run out.
Judging from your translation attempt, you seem to have failed to notice there
is まで ("until").

>
> この拳銃に弾がいくつ入っているかはわからないが、《弾がなくなって、さらにそれが周知になるまでは》、あの不良どもだって従わざるを得ない絶対の抑止力になるはずだった。  
>  I didn't know how many bullets were in this gun, but I expected this gun
> would serve as an absolute deterrence those delinquents could not but obey
> 《at least **until** it would run out of bullets and that (fact) would be
> known to them》.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-22T04:27:40.850
62334
2018-10-22T08:51:10.997
2018-10-22T08:51:10.997
5010
5010
62304
answer