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Caution: perform the following at a range or at least have your pistol pointed in a safe direction ... and do it only once.
Take your pistol, unload it completely, pull back the slide and release it without holding onto the slide. Hear the sound? Remember it.
Now insert a loaded mag into the pistol. Again, be sure the pistol is pointed in a safe direction. As before, pull back the slide and release it. Compare that sound with the previous one. Hear the difference?
That is what Handy is talking about.
Fully releasing the slide of an empty pistol isn't going to wear it out or break it immediately, but it can over the long run. Something has to stop the forward momentum of a fairly heavy chunk of steel being pushed by a strong spring. Might as well let a replaceable brass case help in stopping it.
"Slingshotting" a slide on an empty pistol puts unnecessary stress on some parts and it can cause some peening of the breech face and sometimes the barrel. It all depends on the design of the pistol. No matter how well the pistol can take it, it's just bad form to do it.
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