armedleo the definition of negligence has already been given in this thread a couple of times. It is failure to exercise proper care in doing something.
Well if we're going to get all technical, no, the definition hasn't been given.
Only a paraphrased version of the definition has been given.
The omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided by those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs, would do. or doing something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do. It must be determined in all cases by reference to the situation and knowledge of the parties and all the attendant circumstances.
Law Dictionary: What is NEGLIGENCE? definition of NEGLIGENCE (Black's Law Dictionary)
'Proper' isn't in the definition. If it was, most everything would be considered either negligent or an act of God.
Instead, 'reasonable' is used in the definition of negligence and negligent.
(I won't even get into the definition of Gross Negligence other than to say it doesn't have the word Proper in it either.)
If we want to get all technical on the nomenclature, we 1st need to determine if a reasonable man would think racking the slide a couple times with out a mag and looking at the chamber is enough.
Or would a reasonable man think that you should be running a bright red rod down the barrel and into the chamber and both visually see the red rod in the chamber and tactically feel the rod is what should be considered reasonable.
Then we could debate for pages and pages what 'reasonable' means and how something is deemed reasonable.
Or.... we can talk about the best ways to avoid this scenario.