I learned it as “Treat every gun as if its loaded”…nearly 50 years ago. I was 8 years old and we were shooting bolt-action .22s at a Scout Camp range.

“Sometimes people like to argue that rule number one. ”

Some people argue it because of the way the rule is presented or the way their learned it as just “All guns are always loaded.” or ‘Every gun is always loaded.” vs… ‘Treat every gun as if its always loaded’ or ‘Assume and act like every gun is always loaded’ concepts. They ‘split hairs’ in logic and thought process.

Because we had competent range cadre and a very experience trainer, we all holstered safely and immediately secured the tent. We quickly moved all of the belongings to the range shed.

That is a situation when an accident could occur. The weather changed suddenly. A tent was blown over.

As you clearly stated, the incident above was not an accident. It was a negligent discharge.

On the off chance that pointing a pistol at a trainee and pulling the trigger is somehow useful, you better clear the magazine, rack the slide several times, and stick something in the chamber with the slide locked back to be absolutely CERTAIN that the pistol will not go “BANG!” when you pull the trigger. Of course that is assuming a semi-auto pistol. If you are doing that with a revolver, you better check the cylinder twice–holding it up to light to ensure that you can see light through every single chamber in the cylinder, before closing the cylinder and dry firing the revolver.

One last pro-tip: do NOT handle a firearm when you are significantly fatigued unless it is a true life-or-death self-defense situation.