How to softlock:
get the gun
throw it over the gap
jump into the light.
you will get respawned in the area before the enemies which have now respawned and you cant escpae in the other direction either. aka soft locked :-)
huh, guess that was jsut my computer being weird there with the gun topic. Just retried it and this time, upon light beam induced suicice, I respawned at the gun location and had the gun again (vs before where I respawned there without the gun).
the text box thing is still there though, even happeneing in that gun throwing "cutscene".