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In my time I have seen one auto pistol (Ruger .22 MKII) and one tubular magazine (12ga Remington shotgun) exhibit an EXTREMELY dangerous habit of having a shell lodge in the magazine. When this happens, especially on a 12ga it is VERY easy to believe that the gun is empty. You can rack it and nothing is in the chamber then drop it on it's butt and the stuck shell comes loose. Then another rack of the pump and the gun you thought was empty is HOT and READY to FIRE.

So for me the rule is "It is NOT empty until you can see the empty chamber AND the follower"

There was also one other incident: When I was a teenager some of the other kids in the neighborhood were playing with an antique Winchester .32 special carbine(I believe). They were "shick-shocking" the action and firing it. They had been playing with it for 30 minutes when a shell that had been lodged in the tubular magazine (for god knows how many years) came loose and on the next cycle proceeded to take one of the kids heads apart.

It was indeed a VERY NASTY episode. I am grateful I wasn't there. The neighborhood was pretty darn sober for awhile after that. It took some time and investigating to figure out what had transpired but in the end it was ruled as an accident. Imagine that poor kid having to live with that his entire life.

Your friends story sounds suspiciously familiar - racking the action on a weapon he was sure was empty only to have it discharge. May want to check that out.