If you are tired enough to miss a step in your checklist, it seems you could just as easily be tired enough to be confused about what is a safe direction to click your “empty” gun.
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Then you have two steps to screw up, not just one. Less probability to mess up both at once. And if you screw up the direction, you still have a chance you luck out.
Skilled, well trained pilot crews make mistakes that one would not expect to happen.
Stack the saving throws.
Guns don’t ONLY kill people. They also kill animals and paper targets.
This! 100x this! Everyone says the reason to own a gun is for self defense, the only way to reasonably be able to defend yourself against a home invader with a gun is to have a loaded gun reasonably accessible.
Not to mention that having a gun for self defense makes you less safe, 4x more likely to be shot statistically. The only way to use a gun for self defense is to shoot another human, but most “home invasions” are burglaries and murder hardly seems a fitting response to theft. You’d have to have “mental health” issues to think that shooting someone is an appropriate form of self defense.
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That’s reassuring.
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There’s no certainty. There’s only probability.
That being the case, perhaps one should just assume the gun is loaded, rather than “clicking” it in some “safe” direction.
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Do whatever fits you the best.
Not true. That is not the purpose of any of my remaining firearms. I no longer own handguns. (But they don’t necessarily have to be for defense either.)
Again, not true. Guns are used as deterrents far more often than they’re fired at people.
ETA - OTOH, the .40 Walther I used to carry around? That was for defense.
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okay not everyone says they are for self defense, just A LOT OF PEOPLE. 
I wish we had some stats on this. it is a difficult thing to measure, especially since all crimes are more prevalent in areas with higher gun distribution making it difficult to gauge any deterrent impact.
Hunting rifles are easy to store safely, because you don’t expect to need to use them at a moments notice. I’m obviously just getting fed up with the US gun problem and grumpy! 
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I do too, but most of those stats come from the NRA and I think we can agree that they are not trustworthy.
It seems a bad example in the light of current events, but the gun on an officer’s hip is almost always most effective when holstered.
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If you aren’t responsible enough to lock up your guns then you don’t deserve to own a gun.
And how does that frequency compare to the frequency of kid shooting little brother to death? (Even though there are exponentially more knives in homes than guns.)
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I have no idea. A search on google comes up with several links to kids stabbing other kids, including a 12 year old who killed his baby brother for not real reason. History is full of kids killing other kids. It is rare, but it is a dark reality.
In generally I would keep guns and knives away from children unsupervised. He shouldn’t have had access to the firearm - period.
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That’s the one right there.
Perhaps the kid was his own exacerbating factor, but the adults involved are at fault here, all day long.
ETA - And I submit that if and when someone is tried for the crime, the defendants should be the adults that allowed this to happen. Obviously the kid is a known danger now as well and needs counseling and watching at a minimum.
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My guns are for hunting and are all long guns. If pressed to defend myself, their purpose could suddenly become to kill another human being. But the way I have them scoped and everything, they are for the creatures and make a poor excuse for a self defense weapon.
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Yeah. The one war gun I still own is 130 years old and is a legitimate C&R. Its purpose is now historical instead of killing.
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I have also been miiiiighty tempted to buy a muzzle or breech loading .50 cal. They really aren’t that pricey for basic models.
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I have a repro Hawken rifle in .50 that I’m fond of.
It’s a great range gun because you can slow the frak down and think about what you’re doing. Good for range trips with scout groups and whatnot.
It’s accurate?
You betcha. Puts a hole exactly where you point it.
I’d say out to 75 yards or so, and then the iron sights get a little hard to keep on zero with how heavy the thing’s octagonal barrel is.
ETA - I’ve been to “mountain man” rendezvous where the guys who like to dress up compete by putting a playing card down range, edge-on. If you split the card in half, you win.
ETAA - There’s a similar game played with matches where the goal is to light the match.
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