Good news! The suggestion made by Jent worked!! Pushed hard to the left, heard a click, pushed to the right and it opened right up! Empties. Were not tight in chambers. Now fir the why? That the safety wouldn't move does make me wonder. Bob, could you say more about rim clearance? Are you referring to how the brass bottom of the shell fits the chamber? The gun itself is very tight. Thanks for the suggestion Jent.

The rim cut in the chamber may not be deep enough. The brass of the shell then fits too tight against the standing breach when gun is closed.
Take barrels off. Put shells in each chamber with ejector rods recessed all the way.
Brass should not extend beyond breach end of barrels. I use a steel straight edge to check.
Bob Jurewicz

New shells fall cleanly into chambers. I do notice that the ejectors do not line up perfectly with the rim on the barrel, seemingly holding the brass up a bit higher on the face on the top and outer side. I will have to check other doubles to see if they are all built this way

Yup Bob, that's the technical version of what I was trying to explain.

parker gunsmith
 

When I checked one of my Arrietta's this morning, the grooves in the ejectors line up perfectly with the grooves in the barrel, allowing the shell to sit flat....could it be that the ejectors on the parker need some adjustment to sit flatter and make the grooves consistent all the way around? I hope I am being clear...essentially it appears the ejectors sit a bit higher then the rest of the barrel, holding the brass head higher then it should.

Does the gun close hard with empty chambers?

No more then one would expect with a new gun. It is stiff opening and closing. I have only shot a couple of boxes through it since I bought it. As noted, the extractors seem to sit a bit high and this does result in the grooves designed to hold the brass not matching which causes the brass to sit higher then the edge of the barrels on the outside and top. Out of the 2-3 boxes I have shot through it, the lock up has occurred on only two occasions...both with reloads

What hull were you using for the reloads? I've experienced hard opening and closing of one of my 28-ga. Repros with Estate hulls. I attributed it to being too thick of a rim on the Estate hulls. Never have had a problem with Winchester AA or Remington STS hulls.

These were new Multihulls from Ballistic Products. They have generally worked well for me. I agree, the AA and STS hulls are great and I use a lot of them that I buy once fired. I believe the first time it locked up it was a reload with a hull out of Europe, though I can not recall the brand at this time.

Charles,
I just checked a Repro I have with me and the ejectors fit flush with barrels. They can't extend beyond the breach end of the barrels or they would obstruct closing.
The last little 1/16" of ejector retraction many times is very tight. Push hard.
Bob Jurewicz