Present and past participle

Three men armed with pistols threatened to kill the bank staff.

"armed" is an adjective and means "carrying weapons".
e.g. The suspect is armed with a shotgun. (Longman)

原句:
Three men, who were armed with pistols, threatened to kill the bank staff.
We can transform the relative clause 關係子句 into an adjective phrase 形容詞片語 by dropping "who were".

如果你想講 ...拎住把槍，應該寫為：
Three men holding pistols threatened to kill the bank staff.


2011-11-09 17:23:36 補充：
"holding" in the above sentece is a present participle 現在分詞 acting as adjective to modify "three men", but not a gerrund 動名詞.

Note: staff is a collective noun, so there is no need to add "s".

用armed=被動/形容詞,要個動件短長,先用ing,但帶槍,呢個係形容狀態嘅動詞,唔係形容動作.

例:i wake up起身動作,短
i sleep狀態,可以長可以短,但唔強調一般用短
你用中文諗都係,一班有搶的人去殺銀行員工,但唔會話一班帶緊槍嘅人,呢個唔係單單文法問題,可以話生活習慣,feel/see(見到)/hear(聽到)少用-ing

主動/被動時態一樣,反而係睇個重點,英文重點擺尾,重點唔係男人,係恐嚇要殺人,馱火槍係形容呢3個3人嘅狀態,呢個叫clause,1個短句.個動詞係threatened(恐嚇的簡單過去式)
armed可以當係形容詞/過去式,因為英文習慣,唔會有唔同類嘅動詞擺一齊,前用ing,後面都係,前面用-ed,後面都會.
呢個用法勁常用..就好似1句始嘅叫動名詞,將動詞+ing變名詞
例:swimming is good for health(咁swimming中文叫動名詞,英文叫gerund,一定係名詞嚟嘅,要用形容詞形容佢)