Gun safety is NEVER unreasonable, and the good re-enactment groups and reenactors are VERY VERY careful about it. Notice sometime in movies like "Gettysburg" and "Glory" that the volley fire is aimed high -- the guns are not leveled at the "enemy" for even a wad or burning powder can hurt someone.

In Randolph B. Marcy's book The Prairie Traveler (1859, 1988), he says, ...Never point your gun at another, whether charged or uncharged, and never allow another to point his gun at you. [Emphasis Marcy's] (page 171 in the 1988 reprint).

You were absolutely correct; he was dead wrong and probably knew it.