I have had several situations where a gun mis-fired and almost hurt me or someone else, the first was when I was dove hunting at a tank and another hunter noticed me getting some action and he rushed over to join me at the tank, on his wasy over he needed to cross a fence so he decided to go under and forgot to unload his shotgun, it got hung up on the fence and fired a round towards me, luckily i was far enough away the I just got peppered.  On a second occasion I was hunting with a group that had a young son with them and he was sitting closest to me in the dove field, he was loading a single shot gun and when he closed the gun it fired a round directly next to my foot inches away from blowing it off.  And finally, I was sitting in my chair wating for the birds to fly when all of sudden a flock came from behind me and I jumped up and when I raised my gun I somehow pulled the triger firing off a round inches from my face, that was acary!!!

What have you done differantly now that you have been lucky enough to walk away from these accidents?

Accidental discharges will happen.  You must repeat endlessly to your children and others the importance of keeping the gun pointed away from others.  It was told to me repeatedly as a child, and though it bugged me, I am like a robot anytime I am in the presence of firearms.  I focus only on the barrel of the gun, be it in my hands or somebody elses.  As far as dry firing, I have no problem with it as long as you are focused on the direction of your barrel and what is beyond it.  I would agree that completely removing the bolt is the safest way to store your firearm.