[GingisK]

Prop “guns” don’t have bullets.

[Yo-Yo]

Many, many times the guns on set are real. They look better on screen, especially in closeups.

Filming a closeup could explain why both the DP and the Director were hit by the same one shot. They could have been filming a closeup of Baldwin shooting someone, and pointed his gun at the off-set camera with the director and DP standing next to it.

[SoCal Pubbie]

“Prop guns” include rubber dummies for background use like in war movies and real guns that are deadly if there’s real ammo in them instead of blanks. And even blanks can kill under the right circumstances. It’s also possible a blank sent some sort of debris out the barrel. It’s happened before.

[joshua c]

right they have “blanks” which are cotton wads

why would they have live ammunition?

[COBOL2Java]

Prop “guns” don’t have bullets.

True, although the gun is real. The blank cartridge has no bullet.

Also, a safety test is supposed to be done before handing the gun to an actor. The safety officer aims the blank at a sheet of paper placed at a distance from where the "victim" will be. If any ejected gunpowder reaches the paper, different blanks with less grams are tried until the right one is found.

I wonder if, due to budget constraints, a safety officer was not present at the set. An untrained prop person put live rounds in the gun.

[Allthesaints]

Pray for all involved. The irony is strong here. Anti gun Hollywood can’t make a movie without a gun. I hope Baldwin learns humility though it looks like he was quick to take a defensive tone.

[MarMema]

This one was reported to have one live round.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

If it went through two people obviously there was some type of bullet in it. Lead? Rolled up paper? Broken wood dowel?

I remember a shooting with blanks fifty years ago in Durango Colorado in which a firearm with blanks was used, but a real bullet of a different caliber came out of the gun and killed a woman. Everyone was scratching their heads over that.