Time for an anecdotal, but on topic story. My wife wanted to go look at a few guns at Specialty Sports, here in Colorado Springs, so I was happy to go along. I was wearing my XD9sc concealed in an IWB holster. While my wife was checking out several firearms, I struck up a conversation with the gunsmith on premises, asking about a slight rattle that I had in the mag release on my XD. He offered some opinions, but said that he could give a more accurate answer if he could see the gun, which up until this point had been holstered and invisible. I informed the gentleman that I had the gun on me, holstered and loaded and inquired if he wanted me to removing the weapon for his inspection. He stated he would still be happy to take a look at the gun, so I lifted my shirt, drew the handgun with barrel pointed down and my index finger along the slide. With the gun still pointed at the floor, I dropped the magazine and locked back the slide to clear the chamber, before turning the gun around and handing it grip first to the gunsmith for inspection.
There were probably 35-40 other customers in the store at that point, and at least ten employees visible. At no point were any of them subjected to harm or even in any remote danger, despite the fact the my loaded handgun went from concealed, to visible, to in my hand. The staff at the store appeared to not be at all apprenhensive about the fact that I was carrying a gun and upon returning the gun back to me, told me that I was free to reload the gun in their store. (I put the magazine back in, pocketed the loose round and waited until I had returned to my car to chamber it again, out of courtesy.)
Bottom line, are there criminals and careless people out there with guns? Sure, but how does that justify enforcing pointless rules on those of us who DON'T fall into those categories, rules that the criminals or the careless won't heed?