Alec Baldwin shoots and kills one, injures another.

[babe]

This is negligence to the extreme. I wouldn't be surprised to see manslaughter charges against someone. If you are using real bullets in a prop gun that will be aimed at people, leaving bullets in it is severe recklessness.

The armorer is a 24 year old female that got the job because her father was a famous armorer. She was not qualified. It has also been reported that multiple armorers turned down the gig because of the low pay, so they hired an unexperienced person.

Most armorers own all the firearms themselves. They know the quality, condition, and they control them, keeping them locked up when not being used on set. They should be locked up when not being filmed, and only handed from the armorer to the actor and immediately back. Even blanks can be dangerous due to the pressure, so the armorer must supervise to ensure proper distances are kept, and barrels aren't actually pointed at people. Actors are also supposed to have live fire training on the guns, so they have respect for them, and understand gun safety. I'm not sure if that occurred on this film.

I'll reiterate what I said above, no qualified armorer would ever let a set firearm be used for target practice between sets. That is just insane, and sadly it ended in a life.

It is unclear if Baldwin is the producer or just an executive producer, which many actors get the title for prestige, but don't have much if any control over the set. If he was the producer, and he let all of this occur, at a minimum, he should be financially liable, although I'm sure they have insurance on set.

It will not be surprising to see criminal charges.

I don't see an issue with using blanks if you have proper controls, which 99.99% of other movies do have. The cost for CGI add-in can be prohibitive, and like CGI generally, won't look as good as the real thing. I expect that even if CA bans blanks, other states will still allow it and it will still occur, hopefully with even better safety.

Offhand, I really doubt Alec Baldwin hired a stupid head armorer and sneaked a real bullit into the chamber on purpose to kill someone on his staff he could have fired non-lethally. But pointing the gun and pulling the trigger that way seems so inexplicable on any other line of reason. It wasn't a scene for the movie, wasn't in the script.

I'd look for some damn motive for real murder before I'd close this case. But it will more likely go down as negligent homicide, and there will be civil litigation over damages for sure.

Other than that, Mr. Gold Standard, have you heard of tungsten???

It has the same density as gold, and you can just electroplate a veneer of gold over a tungsten coin or bar or ingot. The Chinese know this. Need I say more????

 

[RandyForRubio]

Any semblance of proper gun safety would have prevented this.

Any time I am handed a gun, I ask whether it is loaded or not…and no matter the answer, I check for myself. Every. Single. Time. I double and triple check guns I’ve handled. This is absolutely an inexcusable accident.

 

[LogGrad98]

From what I read the head armorer was a 24 year old on her first job as the head armorer, or 2nd job maybe. Her dad was apparently a famous armorer, at least in Hollywood circles. I am sure her inexperience played into the problems here.

 

[TheGoldStandard]

Offhand, I really doubt Alec Baldwin hired a stupid head armorer and sneaked a real bullit into the chamber on purpose to kill someone on his staff he could have fired non-lethally. But pointing the gun and pulling the trigger that way seems so inexplicable on any other line of reason. It wasn't a scene for the movie, wasn't in the script.

I'd look for some damn motive for real murder before I'd close this case. But it will more likely go down as negligent homicide, and there will be civil litigation over damages for sure.

Other than that, Mr. Gold Standard, have you heard of tungsten???

It has the same density as gold, and you can just electroplate a veneer of gold over a tungsten coin or bar or ingot. The Chinese know this. Need I say more????

Gold plated tungsten will eventually tarnish. and the electroplate will rub off. The Chinese also make very realistic "replica" guitars, watches, etc. It may look like a duck, and walk like a duck, but it is not a duck. MMM, Peking duck.

 

[fishonjazz]

Any semblance of proper gun safety would have prevented this.

Any time I am handed a gun, I ask whether it is loaded or not…and no matter the answer, I check for myself. Every. Single. Time. I double and triple check guns I’ve handled. This is absolutely an inexcusable accident.

You are probably a well educated gun owner rather than an actor though.
I mean if I'm gun ignorant and an actor and someone gives me a gun on set (like has happened in many previous movies I was in) and the director tells me to aim the gun at the bad guy in the movie and shoot him with the fake bullets from the fake (prop) gun then maybe I just do what the director says (like in all the other movies I have done) with no worry about safety since I'm under the assumption that I'm just making a movie with a prop gun that fires blanks only.

 

[RandyForRubio]

You are probably a well educated gun owner rather than an actor though.
I mean if I'm gun ignorant and an actor and someone gives me a gun on set (like has happened in many previous movies I was in) and the director tells me to aim the gun at the bad guy in the movie and shoot him with the fake bullets from the fake (prop) gun then maybe I just do what the director says (like in all the other movies I have done) with no worry about safety since I'm under the assumption that I'm just making a movie with a prop gun that fires blanks only.

From everything that I have read and understood recently about how this process works in Hollywood, the armored clears it, yells out “cold gun”, then the AD takes it, checks it, again with the “cold gun”, and then the actor takes it, checks it, proceeds.

Alec Baldwin has acted in movies with guns before. These professionals take it very seriously. I mean, how many movies with guns do we have every year? A LOT! And how many deaths have we had in all those movies…3? That’s not a lot. Primarily because people do their job.

And how did this unqualified girl get her job as an armorer? Was it because of her dad? Because they had diversity quotas they had to meet? Just stinking hire the people that are qualified, doesn’t matter what gender or sexuality they are.

And yeah, Baldwin is an actor. He probably doesn’t know a lot about guns. Talks about them a lot. You’d think somebody who is going to talk that much about guns would know the basic rules of how to handle them. I know for a fact that they have safety classes on set to make sure those who are handling know what they’re supposed to do. Somebody died because this prick didn’t do his job right.

 

[RandyForRubio]

You are probably a well educated gun owner rather than an actor though.
I mean if I'm gun ignorant and an actor and someone gives me a gun on set (like has happened in many previous movies I was in) and the director tells me to aim the gun at the bad guy in the movie and shoot him with the fake bullets from the fake (prop) gun then maybe I just do what the director says (like in all the other movies I have done) with no worry about safety since I'm under the assumption that I'm just making a movie with a prop gun that fires blanks only.

Additionally Fish, from what I’ve read, these actors very, very, rarely actually point their guns at people while filming. It’s highly discouraged. Everything I’ve read says they’re all told to act like the gun is loaded.

Also, the gun used was an old Colt style pistol, which means you’d have to **** the hammer for it to fire. Baldwin really doesn’t have any legitimate excuse. He screwed up. It’s incredibly unfortunate, I feel bad for him, but anybody trying to take blame away from him is mistaken (I’m not trying to say you’re doing that either).

 

[LogGrad98]

You are probably a well educated gun owner rather than an actor though.
I mean if I'm gun ignorant and an actor and someone gives me a gun on set (like has happened in many previous movies I was in) and the director tells me to aim the gun at the bad guy in the movie and shoot him with the fake bullets from the fake (prop) gun then maybe I just do what the director says (like in all the other movies I have done) with no worry about safety since I'm under the assumption that I'm just making a movie with a prop gun that fires blanks only.

This is very true. That is exactly what you do. That is why this is on the director and the armorer. The armorer should probably do jail time. That is the point of the most negligence. Unless you are messing around and pick up some random gun from the prop desk and start firing it not knowing what the status is, then it should be on the actor as well.

 

[Avery]

You are probably a well educated gun owner rather than an actor though.
I mean if I'm gun ignorant and an actor and someone gives me a gun on set (like has happened in many previous movies I was in) and the director tells me to aim the gun at the bad guy in the movie and shoot him with the fake bullets from the fake (prop) gun then maybe I just do what the director says (like in all the other movies I have done) with no worry about safety since I'm under the assumption that I'm just making a movie with a prop gun that fires blanks only.

What kind of movies were you in? Do they require me to acknowledge that I'm at least 18 years old in the state of Utah to watch?

 

[LogGrad98]

What kind of movies were you in? Do they require me to acknowledge that I'm at least 18 years old in the state of Utah to watch?

His kind of movies you have to get permission from a federal judge or move to guatamala.

 

[TheGoldStandard]

From everything that I have read and understood recently about how this process works in Hollywood, the armored clears it, yells out “cold gun”, then the AD takes it, checks it, again with the “cold gun”, and then the actor takes it, checks it, proceeds.

Alec Baldwin has acted in movies with guns before. These professionals take it very seriously. I mean, how many movies with guns do we have every year? A LOT! And how many deaths have we had in all those movies…3? That’s not a lot. Primarily because people do their job.

And how did this unqualified girl get her job as an armorer? Was it because of her dad? Because they had diversity quotas they had to meet? Just stinking hire the people that are qualified, doesn’t matter what gender or sexuality they are.

And yeah, Baldwin is an actor. He probably doesn’t know a lot about guns. Talks about them a lot. You’d think somebody who is going to talk that much about guns would know the basic rules of how to handle them. I know for a fact that they have safety classes on set to make sure those who are handling know what they’re supposed to do. Somebody died because this prick didn’t do his job right.

Exactly. And a cold gun is just that, no ammo, live or blank. Blanks can still be dangerous, and should not be pointed at people. The proper procedure when pointing a gun, even a cold gun, is to have plexiglass in place to protect the film crew. Lots of corners cut on this one.

 

[Archie Moses]

Lots people I know seem to be ******** on Baldwin for this because of his past comments due to gun/police violence.

It's not even close to the same thing. He has to live with other's negligence for the rest of his life. The Amorer ****ed up big time and, obviously, wasn't ready to follow her dad's footsteps.

I'm not a fan of Baldwin (don't hate him, just don't care for him,) but this **** up isn't on him. However, unfortunately, it is because of his name, being an actor and well, acting.

Oof... can you imagine being that guy right now?

RIP the cinematographer and I hope the gal that was wounded makes a full recovery.

Baldwin will never be the same - all due to some "professional's" massive **** up and failure.