Most accidental shootings, as near as I can ascertain, involve shotgun hunters unintentionally hitting bystanders. ..........The second most common cause appears to involve rifles and mistaken target identification.
Yep, that is pretty spot on. And when and where those folks chambered the live round had little effect on the tragic event. I'm 42 years old and I have never heard of an "in the field" hunting accident in my home state of Alabama that involved an accidental discharge. Nope in every single case that I have ever heard of the weapon was fired intentionally. So pardon me if I find this whole debate a bit overblown.
Most of my family's land is very thick. If you are going to stalk hunt on it and try to chamber a round only when you see a deer then you might as well stay home and watch football. Even when hunting from a treestand the typical shots on deer are so close that the sound of you chambering a round would almost certainly spook them. So yeah I guess the woods would be slightly safer for humans if no one had a round in the chamber (be safer if we just stayed home too I guess) but it would sure be hell and gone safer for the deer.
