Posted on 10/24/2021 1:39:07 PM PDT by Rokke
Adam isn’t one of the Baldwin brothers.
He was the guy in “My Bodyguard.”
You never, ever take possession of a firearm without assessing whether it is loaded or clear. It is your responsibility. It doesn't matter what the person handing it to you says. It is on you as soon as you take possession.
When I was in Marine Corps boot camp and we were in our "snapping in" phase, (in which we were just practicing our standing, sitting, kneeling and prone positions), we recruits were still obligated to "clear" our weapons before we raised them into a firing position. Even though the guns were handed back to us by drill instructors. Not doing so every single time was a good way to get kicked out of boot camp.
You also never, ever, aim your gun, loaded or not, at anything you do not intend to kill. That was instilled in us. So even in the snapping in phase, in which we were practicing our positions, we never pulled the rifle up unless it was at a target.
Now this Alec Baldwin actor is an obnoxious loudmouth. Still, he has absolutely no defense in this situation. He was filming a movie, he was handed a firearm, and it was his responsibility to clear the weapon to ensure that it was not loaded.
Why wasn’t he arrested on the spot, it is Standard Procedure in EVERY jurisdiction in the USA, he should already be charged and scrambling for bail.
And Police wonder why Honest Citizens don’t trust them
Yes, and no.
Yes if she saw live primers and assumed them to be blanks, she should have counted each chamber and shucked any and all rounds out that she did not right them insert into the revolver for the required scene. No in that once she checked the gun, and handed it off to the prop dude or whomever, who then handed it to the idiot actor, there was a broken chain of responsibility. A quick look into the chambers from an oblique would have revealed a nasty 45 cal lead bullet smiling from the launch tube and not the crimp of a five in one blank....
Then the actor had ownership of the weapon, he too, should have insured it safe for the task.
Ultimately, there will likely be three cases of negligence leading up to the trigger puller in the end.
This aint “sh*t happen” shrug off.
Well, I guess he won’t be invited to Alec’s anyway.
“Yup. Baldwin has potential criminal liability as the movie’s producer, though he doesn’t as the shooter.”
I’m not so sure that’s right. I don’t know all the legal aspects of this, and none of us know the full circumstances of what happened, but I think it’s very likely he could be responsible as the shooter. Especially if he was fooling around and pointed the gun at two people while not actually acting in a rehearsal as has been reported.
I’ll throw out the theory that Baldin was secretly filming one of those 80’s snuff films, just so we can hit max Baldwin, having covered every conceivable theory and angle and move onto posting about somthing new...
Reported he was angry with the director and/or cinematographer who wanted another take on the scene they had just filmed. He was told the gun he was handed was "cold" (no live fire) so being pissed, pointed the gun at them and said "how about I shoot you" and fired. Only one shot, went through and killed the woman, and hit the director in the shoulder.
Whether he's charged and prosecuted in liberal Santa Fe County for his action is questionable.
“Why did he point a gun at someone and pull the trigger? Even if he thought they were blanks.”
See my # 48:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4006362/posts?page=48#48
You know what’s fascinating, if Balwin had not done that little temper tot routine, during the live filming, the real round would have just traveled out into the New Mexico landscape for several hundred yards and no one might have ever known.
Maybe, but if the scene called for him to “shoot” at another actor and if he had kept his cool, that actor might have been killed.
They say those are always slighly off angle and never at the person.
“Curse of the Gunnies” strikes again. From the 1970s and 1980s.
It is when an anti-gun radical is caught using a firearm to shoot or injure someone.
Even some dust kicking up several hundred yards away would not have made anyone go “hmmm...”, because in AZ, NM, West Texas, you always have gusty winds kicking around.
Well, John Wayne did it in McLintock! when he pulled a pistol on his daughter’s boyfriend and shot him, with blanks.
Lots of people learn from TV shows that blanks are harmless, which they are not harmless.
Shows in which blanks were part of the script, showing they were harmless...
Perry Mason
Maverick.
Perhaps INSTEAD of condemning guns and gun owners, Alec Baldwin should have learned BASIC gun safety! The REALITY is that he pointed a loaded gun at a person and PULLED THE TRIGGER! That is NO “misfire”, the firearm WORKED AS DESIGNED. HE failed to CHECK to ENSURE that it was unloaded. I’ll bet he did not even know HOW to CLEAR it.
It is not the actor’s responsibility to verify the weapon is cold. This is well established practice in the film industry. There is plenty of case law with other accidental shootings to back this up. If an actor is also a producer It is what role they are doing at the time of the incident. It is irrelevant that an actor is also a producer if they are doing the active role of acting while on set. This shooting occurred during a rehearsal for a live shoot these are very common in the indisty and are treated legally exactly like a live shoot with film rolling. Why because film is expensive and scenes are regularly and frequently rehearsed with no film rolling. The armor and the associate director who were both in roles requiring them to ensure the weapon was a cold gun however are legally required to verify the weapon is cold. Again let repeat what case law already has held up multiple times. An actor in the role of acting be it in a live shoot or full dress rehearsal for a live shoot are legally identical and the actor has zero responsibility to verify the weapon as cold that is not their role, scope of work or responsibility. All the “rules” of weapons do not apply on set where you will actively be aiming prop guns are live targets for a movie. That also has been held up in court. Otherwise you couldn’t film with weapons at all. The responsibility lies with the armors on set and ultimately the ACTIVE director on scene.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/24/opinions/rust-movie-prop-gun-investigation-callan/index.html
Thank you for an informed opinion.
It was one negligent discharge. Pompous ass Alec Baldwin thought the four basic rules of firearms safety only applied to the little people, and not important people like him.
Armorers also clear weapons. Every weapon I handed in went to the armorer and was cleared and inspected. Duties of military armorer; inspecting weapons, cleaning weapons, performing repairs , OPERATING FIRING RANGE. I simply don’t understand the lackadaisical treatment of weapons on this set. Guns should be stored and secured on set. Every weapon should be cleared on turn in and issue. Everyone on the set using a weapon should be taught or have a review of basic gun safety and have familiarization with weapons on set. Live bullets and blanks should be stored in separate locked containers. Practicing with live rounds then turning in the weapon to be reissued with out being cleared is insane. Any knuckle headed private in the army could do a better job. No excuse for unsafe practice.
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