She should have said, there have been a lot of people shot by what was thought to be an unloaded gun.

When I take people out shooting, after a while I'll shoot a couple of rounds out of mt 9mm pistol, drop the mag, and ask them if it's unloaded. Most say yes. I then fire it down range, usually scaring the crap out of them. By the time we're done, they know whether a pistol is loaded or not.