Calling this an accident implies the gun was fired accidentally.
It wasn’t. He raised the gun into firing position, cocked it, pointed the barrel at her chest and pulled the trigger.
How is that an accident ?
So if I intentionally make a lane change in my car, but the other vehicle is in my blind spot because I didn’t move my head enough to see properly in the rear view mirror, when I hit the other car it’s not an accident because I intentionally changed lanes?
People seem to be hung up on this idea that it’s not an accident, it’s negligence. Most accidents involve some sort of negligence. Calling the shooting an accident simply means Baldwin did not intend to fire a bullet into those two people. Of course perhaps he meant to but setting that possibility aside he accidentally did so as opposed to intentionally. That’s the difference between murder and manslaughter.
Did the scene call for him to aim at the camera and director and pull the trigger? No answer yet to that.
Merriam Webster’s Full Definition of “accident”
1a: an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance
Their meeting was an accident.
b: lack of intention or necessity : CHANCE
They met by accident rather than by design.
2a: an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance
was involved in a traffic accident
2b-medical : an unexpected and medically important bodily event especially when injurious
a cerebrovascular accident
2c-law : an unexpected happening causing loss or injury which is not due to any fault or misconduct on the part of the person injured but for which legal relief may be sought
2d-US, informal —used euphemistically to refer to an uncontrolled or involuntary act or instance of urination or defecation (as by a baby or a pet)
The puppy had an accident on the rug.
3: a nonessential property or quality of an entity or circumstance
the accident of nationality
Thank you Col. Sir for your comments. Would you say that definition 2a and 2c does not apply here? If Baldwin’s intention was to make a scary sound for the camera and it ewas not his intention to have anything come out of the barrel? He certainly violated gun-safety rules by pointing the firearm at something that he did not intend to destroy.
I wonder if it is even necessary to do this when filming. How hard could it be to get out of the way? Shoot out the camera lens and not the people. Set the camera going. Get evabody away. Yell “Action!” Actor points and makes the bang sound or add it in after. Yell “Cut!” Go back and see if camera worked. How is this wrong?