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News Alec Baldwin Accidentally Shoots & Kills Cinematographer, Wounds Director with Prop Gun

I don't know if any of you have watched the documentary The Last Take (on Hulu).

It is made clear that Baldwin pointed the gun exactly where Halyna told him to.

The Armorer definitely fucked up. I think there are lessons to be learned for all productions, but at the end of the day I don't see how Baldwin is criminally or civilly responsible. He trusted the Armoroer when she said it was a cold gun, and that's exactly what her job was.
 
I never understand why the prosecution gives a free pass to Hall, he is the one who said "Cold Gun". Shouldn't he be also responsible? can he not check as a courtesy whether it's a cold gun or not?
 
Happy Hopping said:
I never understand why the prosecution gives a free pass to Hall, he is the one who said "Cold Gun". Shouldn't he be also responsible? can he not check as a courtesy whether it's a cold gun or not?
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Halls was the first assistant director, under S11 of the SAG "General Safety Practices for Production" everyone on the set is to "follow the directions of the Property and/or Weapons Handler ("Armorer") regarding all weapons" and therefore would have generated the same circular scenario as if Baldwin had done so.

Another point of note is that the Property Master and/or Weapon Handler is specifically responsible for the loading or supervising the loading (if it needs to be done "on screen") of all firearms, therefore they -- not Baldwin or Halls -- are responsible for the live rounds being in the gun.
 
Toril Toran said:
Rule 1: Always treat a gun as if was loaded
Rule 2: Always point the muzzle in a safe direction
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Counter Argument 1: Being as if he were to check the gun himself the entire process would have to start over, then the process itself therefore requires that he have to trust the armorer that the gun was cold. Don't condemn the people who trusted the process, do something about the process. Have a second set of eyes on hand to double check the gun with the armorer. Have the armorer on set to check the gun with the actor.

Counter Argument 2: He was pointing the gun in exactly the direction he was being instructed to for the sake of setting up the scene.

Honestly, I think some people here are just too eager to condemn Alec Baldwin for something that was just a very tragic and horrible accident. Much like the corrupt prosecutor herself who who seemed to have a vendetta against the man. If the prosecutor herself has to stoop to those depths to get a conviction, then clearly she never had a strong case to begin with.
 
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Turtletrekker said:
Don't condemn the people who trusted the process, do something about the process. Have a second set of eyes on hand to double check the gun with the armorer. Have the armorer on set to check the gun with the actor.
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Yes, exactly.

That’s what I meant by “lessons to be learned by all productions.”

If the process fails, fix the process.
 
Turtletrekker said:
I think some people here are just too eager to condemn Alec Baldwin for something that was just a very tragic and horrible accident.
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While I won't deny that's been going on in this thread, I also get the impression we've got the "Internet Experts du Jour" crowd clucking in with their two cents. You know, they type who suddenly become know it alls on whatever topical discussion is at hand, which in the case of this thread means we've got people who have suddenly become experts on firearms handling weighing in on what Baldwin should have done and could have done with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight that news articles provide.
 
Turtletrekker said:
Counter Argument 1: Being as if he were to check the gun himself the entire process would have to start over,
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I'm not sure I follow what you're saying here.

Alec checking the gun himself would proceed as follows: The armorer checks the gun and hands it to Alec. Alec checks it again, himself. They film the scene. The entire process would only have to start over if Alec handed it back to the armorer or to a third party.
 
the G-man said:
I'm not sure I follow what you're saying here.

Alec checking the gun himself would proceed as follows: The armorer checks the gun and hands it to Alec. Alec checks it again, himself. They film the scene. The entire process would only have to start over if Alec handed it back to the armorer or to a third party.
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Because under the current rules, the last person to check the gun before filming is the armorer. If Baldwin checks the weapon himself, he is then required to hand it back to the armorer.
 
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Turtletrekker said:
Because under the current rules, the last person to check the gun before filming is the armorer. If Baldwin checks the weapon himself, he is then required to hand it back to the armorer.
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But in the interview w/ George Clooney, he did check the gun at the set just before filming, in front of everyone.

I very much admire Alec Baldwin due to his very long 29 charities contributions.

www.looktothestars.org

Alec Baldwin: Charity Work & Causes

Profile of Alec Baldwin's support for charities including PETA, Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, and Habitat For Humanity. We have 124 articles about Alec Baldwin's philanthropy.
www.looktothestars.org www.looktothestars.org

So officially, he doesn't need to check the gun.But knowing how young that armorer is, as a cautionary move, it would be wise to double check the gun, if he were to pt. at anyone.

in the case of that interview w/ George Clooney, he checks the gun every time regardless of the age of the armorer, solely as a pre-cautionary measure.

What I am interested in knowing is: what does other action movie actors do in a gun scene?
 
Happy Hopping said:
So officially, he doesn't need to check the gun.But knowing how young that armorer is, as a cautionary move, it would be wise to double check the gun, if he were to pt. at anyone.
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Now see, that brings up an interesting thought. Did he check it because he felt the armorer wasn't up to the task? If he checks the gun everytime as you mention, has he ever faced an incident before that made him get into the habit? And in this case, even as he checked it, it still ended up being an issue. That's something definitely weird about that.
 
but from that CBS interview, George Clooney check it EVERY time. Hollywood shouldn't be using ANY gun that can kill people. They should have changed it since Brandon Lee dies. Since this incident, those hollywood people better change this stunt

Dawyne johnson said on CNN "from now on, there will be no longer real gun on the set", suggesting there was before this incident
 
The existing safeguards regarding firearms on a movie set actually do work, the fact there have been so few accidents involving firearms on set over the past century proves this. What happened on Rust was the result of those safeguards not being followed. The lesson that should be taken away from this incident is to make sure those safeguards are being followed on all movie productions in the future.
 
Happy Hopping said:
but from that CBS interview, George Clooney check it EVERY time. Hollywood shouldn't be using ANY gun that can kill people. They should have changed it since Brandon Lee dies. Since this incident, those hollywood people better change this stunt
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You would think that gun safety on set would be much more heavily scrutinized, especially after this recent incident.
 
I wonder if more people will watch this because of what happened, because otherwise this is just another one of those forgettable generic movies that goes straight to VOD starring Stallone, Travolta, Cusack, Patric, Eckhart, Duhamel or Baldwin.
 
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