“What was live ammo doing there!”
This is actually an interesting point. In my first class and my renewal class everybody had a box of ammo sitting right there on our desks. Difference is in the first class the instructor went around the room and examined everyone’s weapon for being safe and unloaded. In my renewal we were asked not to get our weapons out until we entered the firing range. Instructors in both cases were carrying what I presume were loaded firearms but neither displayed their guns, they just told us they were carrying.
I just figure every gun is loaded. I read an interesting post over at Mad Ogre where he was talking about somebody bringing an old shotgun into the store and everybody who handled it pumped the action to verify it was empty, until the last guy who handled it did that and a shell popped out of the rusty old magazine tube and chambered. Nobody realized there was a round up in the tube that was stuck in place and didn’t load the first few times they cycled the action. That’s scary, and something you really have to think about.
Which is why, with a pump gun, you are supposed to check the mag tube by sight and feel before pumping the slide, to ensure your pumping it doesn't load a round.
That’s why a firearm ain’t cleared until you look.