I have seen an accidental discharge in person and strict muzzle control is always something to follow. In the case I saw, a few of us were shooting clay birds. One of the shooters had a double barrel shotgun and put 2 shells into it and when he closed the action it went off. it turned out the gun was something that was handed down to him from his deceased father and wasn't something he ever used. The gun was obviously defective and could have resulted in a bad accident but luckily he turned away from the rest of us when he started the loading process. He was as shocked as the rest of us and proper gun handling practices saved an accident from happening.