Well...
The story as written doesn’t go into detail - it COULD have been a revolver, in which case it would always have a round ready to go if loaded.
If it was a semi-automatic handgun, then yes... why?
But then again - I carry everywhere, every day. It’s only chambered when I feel it needs to be.
Don’t have an answer for you, other than she was acting like a complete dumbass...
OR - as some posters below the article have suggested - the boyfriend plugged her, and then staged the accident to cover it (possible, by IMHO, but not probable).
I go by a simple doctrine: Never attribute malevolence to an event where simple stupidity could also be an option...
I would go with stupid as well. It’s not hard to believe that some immature idiot who never handled a gun before and had no training, bought a gun and then while playing with it ended up shooting herself.
HOWEVER, the ‘detail’ that bothers me is what were they doing driving around “vacant lots just outside the stadium” ???