From the Siege of Boston to the Baldwin Shooting

Illinois Review ^ | October 25, AD 2021 | John F Di Leo

[Avalon Memories]

A dummy round is inert. There is no propellant and primer, so it can't be fired. So the projectile that killed Ms. Hutchins was not a dummy round.

With a revolver, it's simple to pop out the cylinder, look at the chambers, and look down the barrel. If any projectile of any sort was in the weapon, it should have been totally cleared before doing the rehearsal.

It is the responsibility of everyone in the firearm chain of custody on set to verify that the weapon is properly set up for whatever that particular use required. For a rehearsal, no rounds of any kind should have been in that weapon. Period. Everyone in the chain of custody is culpable for what happened, most especially the person who pulled the trigger.

[Fido969]

I hope he checked the barrel clear first.

Ummm... when checked like that the gun is pointed at the ground, away from people. The test allows for a live round to be accidently inserted, and discovered without harming anyone.

My theory, and the only one that gives Balwin some cover, is that dummy rounds were supposed to be used on a gun that happened to have a bad sear. The sear idea comes from the report that the gun had "fired on its own" several times before that. Remington used to have a rifle that would fire "by itself" even when the safety was on.

https://cooperhurley.com/blog/remington-700-trigger-malfunction-may-have-killed-and-maimed-hundreds/

Dummy rounds (inert rounds) are used if the gun is pointed at the camera. The shot (so to speak) would call for Baldwin to point the gun at the camera, and cock the hammer. The sear slips, the hammer falls on a live round.

Baldwin's only liability in the case would be he did not personally observe the gun being dry-fired.

[Fido969]

So the projectile that killed Ms. Hutchins was not a dummy round.

Well, yes, obviously. But you can't check a dummy round by looking at the gun or the ammo.

[Texas resident]

When I was 8 I got my first firearm. A .22 rifle and a box of ammo. My dad told me the same thing. Exact words.

He was a Korean war vet. I still have that rifle.

[jfd1776]

TexasGator, re your “allegedly?” comment..

You’re right, I was a bit clumsy in that sentence. Couldn’t think of a better way to put it.

Obviously the fact that the cinematographer was killed isn’t in question. My “allegedly” applied to the whole sentence, the statement that it happened when Baldwin fired a loaded gun directly at them. It’s possible, theoretically, that he fired it at something else and the bullet ricocheted. It’s possible, theoretically, that there were two shooters and someone else fired the fatal shot. I’m not saying it’s likely, of course. I just don’t think I should write a piece about a possible murder case only three days after the crime without including the word “allegedly” somewhere.

At least some new information is likely to surface eventually, showing that our original expectations, or the original story itself, were off a bit.

[TexasGator]

My 8th grade grammar teacher would have red-marked that sentence for excessive use of a comma.

[jfd1776]

Oh, TexasGator, I will confess that my high school English teachers would have filled every column I write with citations of the same rule: “11c: Avoid the run-on sentence.”

[TexasGator]

“But you can’t check a dummy round by looking at the gun or the ammo.”

Army requires both visual and tactile identifiers.

[TexasGator]

I was referring to the sentence in the article.

[TexasGator]

"But you can't check a dummy round by looking at the gun or the ammo."

[Fido969]

Some dummy rounds are marked, some don't have primers, and some are like the ones I pictured, indistinguishable. I probably should have said SOME dummy rounds you can't tell from real ammo.

On the other hand, if that image was your answer to my saying you couldn't tell the difference, then you implied that all dummy rounds look like the ones you showed. You, in turn, did not qualify your assertion.

If you demand precision in propositions then I will hold you to that standard yourself.

[TexasGator]

“On the other hand, if that image was your answer to my saying you couldn’t tell the difference, then you implied that all dummy rounds look like the ones you showed. You, in turn, did not qualify your assertion.”

I posted a photo of one example. I made no assertion. I did, in fact, state that the Army uses two types of indicators.

One, drilled holes, the other, fluted cases.

[Organic Panic]

It would seem it was all caught on video...

[TexasGator]

” But you can’t check a dummy round by looking at the gun or the ammo.”

Halls said that when the armorer was unloading the gun after the shooting, there were four cartridges with holes drilled in them and one with no holes.