But by the grace of God, that could be any one of us. I am so glad that guy from "back East" manned up and shared that with us. A little of that goes a long way. Dr. David M mentions that he always pulls the slide back to check. One of the features that helped me to decide on purchasing the North American Arms 380 was the fact that the top of the slide has a short slit milled in it; you can see the brass in the pipe without having to pull the slide back. This was very important to me as I was raised with wheel guns and only had revolvers in the house until my sons grew up. (It was much easier to teach them how to open a revovler, empty its contents and know for sure it was empty than using a gun with a slide.) As for a pistol, I use the same philosophy an electrician friend of mine uses when working on electricity jobs. He leaves them hot because he then knows for damn sure they are hot. The worst that can happen in his eyes is that someone turns the cirucuit off, not on. Rule numba 1: All Guns Are ALWAYS Loaded. ALWAYS. This post, all by itself just made this Forum way, way valuable to me! Thanks so much to all of you that share. I am in your debt.