[SJSAMPLE]

Could have been worse;
Anybody remember last year when the Philly chick-cop passed around a loaded Glock to a classroom of 4th-graders? She pulled out the magazine but left one in the pipe.

Every kid in the class handled the gun and none of them pulled the trigger. But, when she got the Glock back she jerked a round that richocheted off the floor and through some kid's cheek.

[Fellow Traveler]

My guess is that he didn't really check to see if the gun was empty. A gun that has not been cleaned can leave a live round stuck in the chamber. The extractor can fail to function because of dirt. A loaded round weighs considerably more than an empty case. If you just glance in the ejection port you could misst the fact that the round is still down in the chamber.