I've talked about this before (at my age I've talked about everything before).

Back when the TV show Rookie Blue was on the air I got a chance to correspond with one of the producers about firearm safety in television.

He told me that in Canada the rules are the set armorer has control of all firearms at all times, and unless they're actually being used in a scene they are kept under lock and key.

He said in any scene where one actor is pointing a gun at another the gun is brought to the set by the armor and the person who's going to be holding the gun and the person who is going to be "shot" with the gun all verify that the gun is not loaded.

Then the gun is pointed in a safe direction and "fired" as a final verification that there's no ammunition in the gun. He said that was the reason that a lot of times you'll see an actor pointing an SAO gun at somebody and the hammer is down. Because nobody thinks to re cock the hammer after they do that safety "firing".

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Retired Career Security Guard