He forgot to follow the first rule of gun safety.
#1) Always, always, always, always, always, always assume a gun is loaded no matter how unloaded you think it is.
The 4 rules of gun safety
The 1st Law of Gun Safety - The Gun Is Always Loaded!
The 2nd Law of Gun Safety - Never Point A Gun At Something You’re Not Prepared To Destroy!
The 3rd Law of Gun Safety - Always Be Sure Of Your Target And What Is Behind It!
The 4th Law of Gun Safety - Keep Your Finger Off The Trigger Until Your Sights Are On The Target!
I tell my nephew to assume that there’s an invisible bullet. He’s young enough that that makes more sense to him than “pretend there is when there isn’t.
Amen, brother. Amen.
The way I phrase it for people I teach is more in line with Jeff Cooper's philosophy. My standard speech:
Guns are always loaded. You must not just ASSUME it's loaded, you must utterly believe it to be loaded, even when you know you just unloaded it. Consider it a Zen thing. If you put the gun down even for an instant, you check it again when you pick it up -- some invisible gremlin may have put a round in when you weren't looking.Especially with semi autos, there are too many cases of people absent-mindedly racking the slide and THEN taking out the mag (not realizing that a fresh round was chambered because the mag was still in).
“He forgot to follow the first rule of gun safety.
#1) Always, always, always, always, always, always assume a gun is loaded no matter how unloaded you think it is.”
Amen, brother. To be followed by rule #2) Never point a weapon at an animal or person unless your intention is to kill.