thank you so much for offering to help! I just wanted to know if it makes sense if I say something like "He lowered the pistol, but Anne noticed that he hadn't released the hammer." or is there a more accurate term to say something like that?
It depends really on the firearm; a lot of modern firearms don’t even have a cocking hammer (the entire mechanism is internal, as in striker fired handguns like Glocks), and on ones that do have it, cocking the hammer only makes it easier to pull the trigger, it’s very much still a loaded and dangerous gun even if the hammer isn't cocked (assuming there’s a round in the chamber and the safety is off).
From a hard-drama perspective, a way to illustrate it would be to have the character remove the magazine, without racking the slide; in this case there is still a round in the chamber; but to a layman it’d appear like a gesture of disarmament. If it’s more a gesture of mistrust, I’d suggest having them lower the gun, but keep it between the two characters, such things are a real sign of distrust or that a character is ill at ease. For a more audible noise, you could have them ease the hammer down (certain guns even use this as a “soft” version of safety, including my own personal favorite pistol, the CZ SP-01; hitting the decocker makes a very audible “click”), but have the character note that the person holding the gun still has their finger on the trigger.
