Normally, one would pull the hammer all the way back until it engaged the sear (cocked). IF one is just playin’ around with it, I suppose one could pull the hammer back far enough, but not quite engage the sear, and IF freely released, it would have enough power to light off around.
Regardless, who was holding/playing with the gun? Who was pointing at people? Who broke every single firearm safety protocol there is? THAT is the person responsible...Alex Baldwin.
“Who was pointing at people?”
Guns are pointed and fired at people in countless movies. After millions of rounds fired this way amazingly there have not been that many accidents.
No. The problem lies elsewhere.
“...who was holding/playing with the gun? Who was pointing at people? Who broke every single firearm safety protocol there is? THAT is the person responsible...Alex Baldwin.” [lgjhn23, post 4]
Agree absolutely and totally. From what I’ve heard, movie sets are notoriously crowded with people who never learned the basic safety/handling rules, or who flippantly ignore them.
To delve a bit deeper into single action quirks -
Almost all single action replicas are based on Colt’s Single Action Army (P frame, military Model 1873 US Revolver), a notorious safety risk and very breakage-prone. It’s now universally recommended that users never load more than five round, and to keep the empty chamber under the hammer.
Lock parts (trigger, hammer, bolt) are small and quite breakage-prone. Often it’s possible to strike the hammer or drop the arm on its hammer spur, and if an unfired cartridge is under the hammer, looseness and the natural springiness will permit the firing pin tip (rigidly fixed to the hammer face) to bounce forward and ignite the primer. I personally met one individual who ignored the empty-chamber rule and shot himself in the rear end when he bumped the hammer of his holstered revolver against a really solid portion of his ATV.
A number of safety devices - some manual, some part-automatic - have been contrived to reduce the risk of negligent discharge, but it hasn’t been eliminated from these arms. Only a redesign of the lockwork can have much impact, such as the Ruger single action revolvers (New Model Blackhawk, Single Six,Single Seven, Single Ten etc).