Yeah always check! Their was a guy at a local gun shop here who wanted to show me the mods he did on his sights on his Glock and he handed me his pistol right from his holster. I figured it was loaded and as soon as I got it I press checked it and sure enough round in the chamber (as it should be). He never said a word and good thing I wasnt one of the LCD type people that were also milling around flagging people with the muzzles of the guns they were looking around at.