I think that the way reenactors load here in America certainly is safe, but when they do it they only use a powder charge and they don't ram it down, (they don't even have ramrods when shooting blanks).
My understanding of the redcoat's and colonial manual of arms is that they would start by grabbing a cartridge. They would then bite the part with the lead ball in it, rip it open, poor a little in the pan, lower the frizzen with the lock at half cock, dump the remainder of the powder down the barrel, spit the ball into the barrel, stuff the paper in after it, ram it down and then bring it up to fire. After doing all this, they would then immediately repeat it.
To me this seems unsafe on a number of levels. The idea of having my head in front of a mostly loaded gun so that I can spit a ball into it is one of the first things that make me hesitant to try it. Then there's the possibility of an accidental discharge due to an unburned ember when you're firing and reloading as fast as possible. I also see a strong possibility of accidentally setting the gun at full cock in the haste and excitement of trying to do this.
Perhaps they had a safer loading procedure in Europe?