Always treat a gun like it's loaded

[fredball]

That's a great real life reminder

I have made it a rule noting in any of the 3 safes loaded ever. I have home made chamber flags in all H.G. and L.G.

 

[washagonian]

There are two Youtube videos of venerable firearms experts that come to mind when I think about this topic. (If you google them, you'll probably find them).

One is of Colonel Jeff Cooper doing a training to a classroom (probably from the 1970's). He's going over the rules of gun safety. He pulls his 1911 from his holster and checks the chamber. Puts it back in the holster, walks to the other side of the blackboard, pulls the pistol and checks the chamber again. He stresses that once the firearm leaves your hand, even if you just put it back in your holster and you "know" that there is no round in the chamber, you still check it. The point is about developing subconscious safety behavior and muscle memory. You get to the point that you don't have to think about it - it is automatic that when you put a firearm in your hand you automatically check to see if it's loaded, without thinking. GREAT POINT AND PRACTICE.

The other video is more comtemporary. It's Jerry Miculek doing a dry fire demonstration of the Mantis system. Everytime he pulls the trigger and then brings the pistol off target, he checks the chamber. It gets sort of tedious in the video - but you can see his muscle memory and subconscious behavior portrayed on the camera. And there is no doubt that if you're around Jerry Miculek and he's handling a firearm, you're probably more safe than you are around yourself.

Cheers.