Everyone that handled the gun up to and including Baldwin was negligent. Baldwin especially so because he cocked and pointed the gun at his victim.
I cannot believe that I agree with George Clooney about anything but he was exactly right. If you hand me a gun the first thing I will do is check to see if it is loaded. If you hand me a gun and tell me it is not loaded the first thing I will do is check to see if it is loaded. If I watch you check the gun to confirm that it is not loaded and you then hand me the gun and tell me it is not loaded then the first thing I will do is check to see if it is loaded.
After I have personally checked and confirmed that it is not loaded I will still handle the gun as if it were loaded because the first rule of handling guns is that every gun is loaded.
A Freeper told the story of being at a friend’s house. The friend had just purchased a new pistol. The friend emptied the gun and magazine and they dry-fired it downstaris and admired the new purchase.
The friend’s wife call them up for dinner, and Mr. Freeper used the downstairs bathroom.
On the way up for dinner he decided to take one last “shot”. All the ammo was still scattered on the table. He took careful aim at the water cooler in the corner.
“BANG!”
For some reason, the friend had reloaded the gun with new ammo out of the box, with the emptied ammo still laying on the table! Thankfully it was just a water cooler!
Even after this tragedy Mr. Baldwin does not seem to have the patience to observe the basic gun safety rules you just described. You see? He has “people for that”.