As some states define whether or not a priming charge or cap's presence on the muzzleloading firearm to define "loaded" or "unloaded" it is totally relevant. A muzzleloader without caps or priming charge in place would be seen as equally foolish as Condition Fife. So you came up short there partner.
To those tolerators and apologists of Condition Barney Fife/3/round missing from chamber:
I think you fail to see the liability they pose to you; these false half-witted carriers of self defense firearms. By their reckless nature of ill preparedness and half readied weapons carriage they wittingly and recklessly expose you to death, danger and demise. By the very weapon which they knowingly fail to load and thence comport themselves as prepared responsible citizens they do thereby endanger the citizenry by introducing a weapon into the public domain to be used by their attacker in their own murder. Furthermore they do negligently expose the citizens in their immediate vicinity to murder, robbery, and general discomfort at the hands of said murderer who would have been less well armed if said murdered person had diligently and fully prepared his weapon and maintained it upon his person in accordance with common sense and accepted self defense tactics. The presence of a firearm in public which does not stand ready to support goodness will surely be appropriated for evil at first avail. Consider the collateral damage the unprepared person's contributory negligence will cause when he fails to stop the evildoer and thus arms him or in someway hastens him along in his diabolical plot because he was not standing proper guard over himself and his community with a ready and serviceable weapon. Would the carrier of the Fife pistol have had the decency to chamber a round he could have eliminated a risk to himself and others by being in the most ready and reactive state while conveying his firearm in a manner consistent with one who comports himself as a decent person and an upstanding member of the community.
Basically stated the people who want to do this are not highly trained Israeli operatives. They are gun bobblers who are too afraid to carry a gun properly, too foolish and arrogant not to carry at all, and supremely ignorant of the fact that they require further training to carry a firearm safely. It's your tail on the line too, don't think they don't pose a risk to you as well.
