True, but I would hope they are trained to do so.

And the officer did exactly as he was trained to do.

My point is that the officer could have easily avoided this situation altogether by explicitly stating this before it could become a problem.

Not the officers job to explain something that should be common sense.

The driver obviously didn't mean any harm as shown by his profuse use of the word sorry.

But the situation could have gone very differently if it were a different person behind the wheel. It's easy to say he wasn't a threat after the fact, but in the heat of the moment?

Yes, but as soon as he finishes saying "Is that a real gun?" the first time the man starts turning to it.

And? Asking "is that a real gun?" is not the same as asking "can you pick up that gun?" All he had to do was answer a simple question and the stop would have gone a completely different route. Of course the officer is going to ask about a gun visible in the cab.

I don't, but again would hope that scenarios like "visible gun in cab" would be better prepared for to ensure nothing like this happens.

Nothing happened. Think about it, if the officer broke any protocol, why would the police department upload the video -- using it as an example of the effectiveness of body cam's. I really just don't know how you can see it any other way.

It seems like the officer asking the question is why the driver reached for his gun.

What? Again, he did not ask the driver to pick up the weapon. He asked the driver if the gun in his truck was real firearm. Nobody forced the driver to ignore the officers question and proceed to reach for said gun.

The driver was very apologetic for making the mistake, and didn't intend to cause any harm.

Which is perfectly fine, I'm sure he wasn't charged with any crime associated with reaching for the gun. Rather be safe than sorry.

A simple warning before asking the question would have made this situation a lot safer.

It is common sense. Why the fuck would you reach for a gun while being questioned by a police officer during a traffic stop? What world do you live in where you wouldn't expect the officer to draw his firearm? Truly astounding.