The very first item on your new season agenda should be to read & heed your Outdoor Annual & your Public Hunting Lands handbook cover to cover. A reply to an inquiring game warden of "I didn't know" will elicit the same response at the very least.

they were hunting public land not private.

I had a Model 94 that had to be unloaded by running rounds in and out of the action. It was cold and I had on a jacket. This was 50 years ago. The cuff of the jacket caught on the trigger as I was unloading the gun- working the action and BAM the gun fired. I was away from camp and the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. I sold that gun and got a Marlin 336 with a cross bolt safety. My only point is some systems are just better than others. No one today seems to go around with an empty chamber. You can still have rounds in the magazine. For young people- I think that's a good way to start them out. That seemed to be a lot more common years ago. The game is less now and everyone is too anxious to shoot something- it seems. I've taken a couple of hunter ed classes and the subject gets glossed over but I think more attention should be given it. A lot of young people over rely on safeties. On the old Remington 700 trigger with the connector. Some folks epoxied it in place but I never really got the issue until someone explained it to me. I still have that set up and no problem. I clean the trigger and and don't play or wiggle the trigger. Never had a problem.

Amen on the bolded part my friend and I couldn't agree more with you on the first part.

Teach them from a very young age what weapons do and that once done you cannot take it back and you will be amazed how most kids respond to that.
My boy is now 21 and knows more about guns than I ever did. He wants to finish up his BS in business then eventually open a gun shop but now is thinking twice about that due to all the BS happening around our country. I told him to go on and do it as this is Texas and no matter what we will keep our weapons come hell or high water.

And no doubt, I always will respect the law and abide by it....even the ones that might not make the best sense to me. lol

I took the hunter's ed class multiple times to get my kids and wife through it. We all had the same instructor and he demonstrated safety failure causes multiple times in his class. He worked with the sheriff's department so he had different models of rifles to demonstrate with. The one example that stuck out with me was lifting a rifle 2 feet off the ground and dropping it on its butt. Almost every safety failed that test back. The other example he did was hand a person a rifle and simulated game approaching, raising the rifle and lowering the rifle. The majority of people fail to put the safety back on, after the adrenaline kicks in its worse. I come from a military back ground and I still unload my guns (except the one on my person) for the simple fact that others around me may not have the same training and may not have learned to respect a firearm the way I have. Too many people make mistakes specially the ones that know it all and become complacent with firearm safety. Not every scenario has the same end result. Unloading your firearm will usually prevent a lot of tears though (my friend learned the hard way). Unless your south of the border or into something bad you don't need a loaded rifle in camp anyway. Stay safe.

He was hunting on public lands and was parked in the parking lot. You can't have loaded guns in the parking lot of public hunting property, plus the gun was unattended, loaded, and not on safety.
This wasn't private property....

Safety first always

I seldom unload my rifles when hunting. But, when I enter the house, I open the bolt. When on a 4 wheeler, I have the safety on.

I ASSUME that all of my guns are loaded.

To me common sense says not to have a round in the chamber of a rifle when in camp or in vehicles.

Back when I was growing up in the 50's, we as kids were taught not to touch my dad's guns. He kept them behind a door in easy reach, but we knew not to touch them.
Most kids growing up on a farm or with parents that grew up in a rural community taught their kids at an early age, and it was just common sense that we survived.
Nowadays kids see a gun and it's a curiosity to them, and they can't leave it alone.
Were parents reckless back then?
Were the guns unloaded in deer camp? Maybe? or maybe not? I sure couldn't tell you for sure.
That said, as an adult I followed the rules where you treat any gun as if it were loaded, and I would never have a gun left unattended with rounds in the chamber or even in a magazine.
The chamber would be clear, and the detachable magazine (clip to some) would be in my pocket if I intend to hunt later that day.

NEVER touch another man's........

Woman
Gun
Hat
Bottle
horse
dog
anything.............

ASK first

If a GW came to my place(I don't live there) and checked for loaded guns, he would strip his gears.

Not sure if covered before, I talked to TPWD last week ,they said for on any public land, if you have a CHL you can carry loaded concealed or open on any part of the public land camp or no camp for defense or mountain lion ect. as long as your not actively hunting with it. They would have to see you or have video of you actively hunting with it.But I would never have a loaded rifle in camp.
Reminds me of MeatEater when a big grizzly bear roared thur camp and his friend REMI had left his 45 cal. pistol by his back pack on the other side of camp.

I thought this was an interesting statement. For 2019, most of the hunting accident appear to happen in the field. It looks like just 2 incidents happened around vehicles...
https://tpwd.texas.gov/education/hunter-education/2019-hunting-accident-report-2.pdf