Posted on Jan 19, 2023
Alec Baldwin, armorer charged in connection to fatal shooting on film set: 'No one is above the...
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In many ways I am concerned that the charge for Alec Baldwin is involuntary manslaughter in connection to the fatal shooting that occurred on the set of film "Rust." His overall on set behavior totally disregarded the inherent dangers of firearms. The set is not the place to practice a cross draw with an modern firearm, much less an ancient revolver. As many of you have see me rail about the "Big Four Rules of Firearm Safety", he broke all four and should be slapped down.
Alec Baldwin, armorer charged in connection to fatal shooting on film set: 'No one is above the...
Posted from theblaze.comPosted in these groups: 
Firearms and Guns
Firearms and Guns
Posted >1 y ago
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Cooper's so-called "Four Rules" are simply irrelevant on a movie/tv set or theatrical production. Sorry, but that's the truth. There are a completely different and much more detailed set of rules for such productions.
Let's leave names out of it for the moment and talk about the different jobs that were involved (you'd see why at the end).
An ACTOR accepted a firearm from an ASSISTANT DIRECTOR who told the ACTOR that the firearm was unloaded. The ACTOR did not check to see if the firearm was loaded. While handling the firearm during the rehearsal of a scene the ACTOR fired the gun, resulting in two people being shot, one of whom died. That much everyone agrees happened. The ACTOR claims he didn't pull the trigger, however there was nothing mechanically wrong with the firearm so he must have pulled the trigger whether he intended to or not.
Cooper's four rules are were written for shooters handling real firearms and assume some level of knowledge about firearms. The rules for handling props on a production set are completely different and much more detailed.
So what mistakes were made? Let's list them from least significant to most significant:
1. The ACTOR accepted the gun from the ASSISTANT DIRECTOR. The actor had enough experience to know that the gun should have come from the ARMORER (or an ASSISTANT ARMORER, or the PROP MASTER if there was no armorer)
2. The ASSISTANT DIRECTOR handed the gun to the ACTOR and told the ACTOR that the gun was 'cold' (not loaded with either blanks or live rounds, might be loaded with dummy rounds). The ASSISTANT DIRECTOR was neither qualified nor authorized to make that determination.
3. The ASSISTANT DIRECTOR got the gun from an unsecured prop cart. The ASSISTANT DIRECTOR should have gotten the gun only from the ARMORER.
4. The gun was on an unsecured prop cart. This was a major mistake by the ARMORER who is responsible to keep all guns secure at all times when not in use.
5. The entire production was regularly cutting corners and ignoring safety procedures. This was THE major mistake. Responsibility for overall safety lies with the PRODUCER who is the person who hires the entire cast and crew, sets all procedures, and enforces all rules.
In this particular case, the PRODUCER chose to hire a young and inexperienced individual as ARMORER. The PRODUCER chose to not enforce many standard safety procedures apparently in an effort to save time (time is money in a movie production).
The ARMORER claims that she attempted to enforce standard safety procedures but was overruled by the PRODUCER.
What should have happened: The ARMORER should have maintained security of all guns at all times while not in use. The ARMORER should have prepared and checked the gun for this scene, then taken the gun to the ASSISTANT DIRECTOR. The ARMORER should have rechecked the gun in the presence of the ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, then the ARMORER and ASSISTANT DIRECTOR should have taken the gun to the ACTOR. The ARMORER should have rechecked the gun in the presence of the ACTOR, given the gun to the ACTOR, and ensured that the ACTOR knew how to operate the gun for the specific scene. None of that was done properly.
NONE OF THAT WAS DONE PROPERLY!
The two people MOST RESPONSIBLE for the tragedy were the ARMORER and the PRODUCER.
The two other people who made lesser mistakes were the ASSISTANT DIRECTOR and the ACTOR.
So who were those four people:
ACTOR -- Alec Baldwin
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR -- Dave Halls
ARMORER -- Hannah Gutierrez-Reed
PRODUCER -- Alec Baldwin
One other unidentified person might be even more responsible but will probably never be identified, that would be whoever loaded live ammunition into the gun.
You are 100% right that Baldwin is responsible for the tragedy, but not because he fired the fatal shot - because he created the sequence of errors that let it happen.
Let's leave names out of it for the moment and talk about the different jobs that were involved (you'd see why at the end).
An ACTOR accepted a firearm from an ASSISTANT DIRECTOR who told the ACTOR that the firearm was unloaded. The ACTOR did not check to see if the firearm was loaded. While handling the firearm during the rehearsal of a scene the ACTOR fired the gun, resulting in two people being shot, one of whom died. That much everyone agrees happened. The ACTOR claims he didn't pull the trigger, however there was nothing mechanically wrong with the firearm so he must have pulled the trigger whether he intended to or not.
Cooper's four rules are were written for shooters handling real firearms and assume some level of knowledge about firearms. The rules for handling props on a production set are completely different and much more detailed.
So what mistakes were made? Let's list them from least significant to most significant:
1. The ACTOR accepted the gun from the ASSISTANT DIRECTOR. The actor had enough experience to know that the gun should have come from the ARMORER (or an ASSISTANT ARMORER, or the PROP MASTER if there was no armorer)
2. The ASSISTANT DIRECTOR handed the gun to the ACTOR and told the ACTOR that the gun was 'cold' (not loaded with either blanks or live rounds, might be loaded with dummy rounds). The ASSISTANT DIRECTOR was neither qualified nor authorized to make that determination.
3. The ASSISTANT DIRECTOR got the gun from an unsecured prop cart. The ASSISTANT DIRECTOR should have gotten the gun only from the ARMORER.
4. The gun was on an unsecured prop cart. This was a major mistake by the ARMORER who is responsible to keep all guns secure at all times when not in use.
5. The entire production was regularly cutting corners and ignoring safety procedures. This was THE major mistake. Responsibility for overall safety lies with the PRODUCER who is the person who hires the entire cast and crew, sets all procedures, and enforces all rules.
In this particular case, the PRODUCER chose to hire a young and inexperienced individual as ARMORER. The PRODUCER chose to not enforce many standard safety procedures apparently in an effort to save time (time is money in a movie production).
The ARMORER claims that she attempted to enforce standard safety procedures but was overruled by the PRODUCER.
What should have happened: The ARMORER should have maintained security of all guns at all times while not in use. The ARMORER should have prepared and checked the gun for this scene, then taken the gun to the ASSISTANT DIRECTOR. The ARMORER should have rechecked the gun in the presence of the ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, then the ARMORER and ASSISTANT DIRECTOR should have taken the gun to the ACTOR. The ARMORER should have rechecked the gun in the presence of the ACTOR, given the gun to the ACTOR, and ensured that the ACTOR knew how to operate the gun for the specific scene. None of that was done properly.
NONE OF THAT WAS DONE PROPERLY!
The two people MOST RESPONSIBLE for the tragedy were the ARMORER and the PRODUCER.
The two other people who made lesser mistakes were the ASSISTANT DIRECTOR and the ACTOR.
So who were those four people:
ACTOR -- Alec Baldwin
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR -- Dave Halls
ARMORER -- Hannah Gutierrez-Reed
PRODUCER -- Alec Baldwin
One other unidentified person might be even more responsible but will probably never be identified, that would be whoever loaded live ammunition into the gun.
You are 100% right that Baldwin is responsible for the tragedy, but not because he fired the fatal shot - because he created the sequence of errors that let it happen.
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MSG Thomas Currie
Maj Robert Thornton - The gun in the incident was real and completely functional. Nearly all guns used in movies are real. Very few are modified to not accept live ammunition. And even fewer are actually fake. The term "prop" does not mean non-functional or fake. The word "prop" is just short for "property" which refers to all of the equipment used in the production.
As for disregarding Cooper's so-called Four Rules, every experienced gun user (including both you and I) routinely violates some or all those rules as they are usually written. For example, Rule One is normally misquoted as "Treat all guns as loaded" which would make it impossible to ever clean any gun. The actual rule was (and is) Treat all guns as loaded until you have cleared the gun yourself.
The Four Rules assume that the people know how to handle a gun and how to know when it is loaded etc. The procedures adopted for theatrical productions are more detailed and SAFER, but those rules recognize that most people involved in a production don't know anything about guns and recognize that during the production guns WILL be pointed at people.
That is why the Armorer is the person always responsible for preparing and checking every gun every time. The Armorer is responsible to maintain control of every gun at all times when it isn't actually being used. The Armorer is responsible to recheck the gun when passing it to whoever will use it and it is always the armorer who gives the gun to whoever will use it. The Armorer is the gun expert who is responsible to ensure that each user knows exactly what they are supposed to do with each gun each time it is used.
If the Armorer on Rust had actually done her job the shooting would have been impossible because the gun would have been loaded with dummy rounds and would have been checked three separate times before being handed to the actor.
The scene where the shooting occurred called for the actor to point the gun at the camera, which is where he did point the gun. The woman who was killed chose to stand exactly where the camera was supposed to be because she wanted to see exactly what the scene would look like when filmed.
The entire system is built around making accidental shootings impossible despite the fact that guns will be pointed at people and despite the fact that actors don't know about guns. [In that way, it is much like many Army firing ranges that attempt to make the range safe instead of teaching people to be safe]
Many people complain that the actor failed to check the gun. The actor isn't supposed to check the gun. In fact, the rules prohibit the actor from checking the gun because the only way to check the gun would require the actor to unload and reload the gun which is 'tampering' with the gun by someone who is not expected to know details such as how to tell the difference between a dummy round and a live round. ONLY the armorer is allowed to load or unload guns.
As much as we all want to blame Baldwin (who really is an ass), my point is that HE IS responsible but not for the reasons most people want to blame him.
Think of the Rust movie set as a unit where the commander appoints a brand new 2LT as RSO, then tells the RSO to "Sit back and shut up" while violating all the range safety procedures to get the unit through the range as quickly as possible. If a private does something dumb because he hasn't been trained, who is really at fault?
As for disregarding Cooper's so-called Four Rules, every experienced gun user (including both you and I) routinely violates some or all those rules as they are usually written. For example, Rule One is normally misquoted as "Treat all guns as loaded" which would make it impossible to ever clean any gun. The actual rule was (and is) Treat all guns as loaded until you have cleared the gun yourself.
The Four Rules assume that the people know how to handle a gun and how to know when it is loaded etc. The procedures adopted for theatrical productions are more detailed and SAFER, but those rules recognize that most people involved in a production don't know anything about guns and recognize that during the production guns WILL be pointed at people.
That is why the Armorer is the person always responsible for preparing and checking every gun every time. The Armorer is responsible to maintain control of every gun at all times when it isn't actually being used. The Armorer is responsible to recheck the gun when passing it to whoever will use it and it is always the armorer who gives the gun to whoever will use it. The Armorer is the gun expert who is responsible to ensure that each user knows exactly what they are supposed to do with each gun each time it is used.
If the Armorer on Rust had actually done her job the shooting would have been impossible because the gun would have been loaded with dummy rounds and would have been checked three separate times before being handed to the actor.
The scene where the shooting occurred called for the actor to point the gun at the camera, which is where he did point the gun. The woman who was killed chose to stand exactly where the camera was supposed to be because she wanted to see exactly what the scene would look like when filmed.
The entire system is built around making accidental shootings impossible despite the fact that guns will be pointed at people and despite the fact that actors don't know about guns. [In that way, it is much like many Army firing ranges that attempt to make the range safe instead of teaching people to be safe]
Many people complain that the actor failed to check the gun. The actor isn't supposed to check the gun. In fact, the rules prohibit the actor from checking the gun because the only way to check the gun would require the actor to unload and reload the gun which is 'tampering' with the gun by someone who is not expected to know details such as how to tell the difference between a dummy round and a live round. ONLY the armorer is allowed to load or unload guns.
As much as we all want to blame Baldwin (who really is an ass), my point is that HE IS responsible but not for the reasons most people want to blame him.
Think of the Rust movie set as a unit where the commander appoints a brand new 2LT as RSO, then tells the RSO to "Sit back and shut up" while violating all the range safety procedures to get the unit through the range as quickly as possible. If a private does something dumb because he hasn't been trained, who is really at fault?
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Maj Robert Thornton
MSG Thomas Currie one final question; the screen they were doing that day did not call for Baldwin to pull the trigger. The FBI, if I am not mistaken, stated that they could not make the gun fire without pulling the trigger. Baldwin maintains he didn’t pull the trigger. So my question would be, if he was not supposed to pull the trigger, but ultimately did, would that also add blame in that instance, other than they failed to do thing properly on the set that he was in charge of? I’m interested how this all comes out
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MSG Thomas Currie
Maj Robert Thornton - Yes, Baldwin certainly pulled the trigger. I'm sure the prosecutor will emphasize that point at trial. It may or may not have been deliberate -- we are talking about a pompous ass who doesn't actually know anything about guns. He also had to have pulled the hammer back to cock the single action revolver. I have not seen any details of the script and stage directions, so I don't know if the hammer was supposed to be cocked, but I suspect that it was because there wouldn't be any reason to point a single-action revolver at anyone without cocking the hammer. It doesn't take much to activate the trigger on most single-action revolvers. On many it would be possible that he had his finger on the trigger, cocked the hammer while holding the trigger and never realized he was pulling the trigger. None of us saw the actual event and it wasn't being filmed so everyone is discussing what MIGHT have happened. Mechanically the hammer had to be cocked and the trigger had to be pulled, but that MIGHT have all happened together. Or he might have accidentally pulled the trigger. Or he might have deliberately pulled the trigger -- there is no way for us to know for sure. The one thing I am sure of is that Baldwin's lawyers will find some expert to explain how it could have happened without him doing it deliberately.
But to get back to movie rules and responsibility. The movie rules are designed to make this kind of accident impossible. The movie rules assume that all actors are incompetent with guns, so there is NEVER any live ammo and blanks are used only when absolutely necessary. That gun was supposed to be loaded with dummy rounds that should have been individually checked at least three times. The actor was specifically told that the gun was "cold" which means it was either empty or loaded with dummy rounds. So far as he knew, the gun had been checked and COULD NOT fire. If the Armorer had done her job, the tragedy would have been impossible.
I'm glad to see Baldwin charged, and I hope he is convicted, but if he is convicted I expect it will be for pulling the trigger not for his real mistakes. Pulling the trigger is much easier for the jury to understand than the concept of the Producer having overall responsibility and having deliberately created multiple dangerous conditions that led to the shooting.
But to get back to movie rules and responsibility. The movie rules are designed to make this kind of accident impossible. The movie rules assume that all actors are incompetent with guns, so there is NEVER any live ammo and blanks are used only when absolutely necessary. That gun was supposed to be loaded with dummy rounds that should have been individually checked at least three times. The actor was specifically told that the gun was "cold" which means it was either empty or loaded with dummy rounds. So far as he knew, the gun had been checked and COULD NOT fire. If the Armorer had done her job, the tragedy would have been impossible.
I'm glad to see Baldwin charged, and I hope he is convicted, but if he is convicted I expect it will be for pulling the trigger not for his real mistakes. Pulling the trigger is much easier for the jury to understand than the concept of the Producer having overall responsibility and having deliberately created multiple dangerous conditions that led to the shooting.
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Maj Robert Thornton
MSG Thomas Currie we were discussing this at breakfast, with my prayer group; we are all shooters and have single action revolvers in our collections. The point being the hammer had to have been cocked. I wonder if the guns on the set had the same safeties that all our revolvers have, such as a transfer bar safety which only is in play if the trigger is pulled.
Now for the interesting question of did he pull the trigger. In November I had an accident with my compound bow. Prior to going into the woods I was checking function without an arrow notched. As I got to full draw the bow fired, part of the string or sight hit my left eye, lacerating the cornea. I do not recall pulling the trigger on my release, yet it released. I know I didn’t have my index finger tight against the back of the trigger. I suspect, my glove may have caught the release. But to say definitively that my index trigger didn’t touch the release, I could not swear to it; it all happened so fast.
Back to Baldwin; that may be what happened to him. Things happened so quickly he may not realize he pulled the trigger after cocking the revolver.
Now for the interesting question of did he pull the trigger. In November I had an accident with my compound bow. Prior to going into the woods I was checking function without an arrow notched. As I got to full draw the bow fired, part of the string or sight hit my left eye, lacerating the cornea. I do not recall pulling the trigger on my release, yet it released. I know I didn’t have my index finger tight against the back of the trigger. I suspect, my glove may have caught the release. But to say definitively that my index trigger didn’t touch the release, I could not swear to it; it all happened so fast.
Back to Baldwin; that may be what happened to him. Things happened so quickly he may not realize he pulled the trigger after cocking the revolver.
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This hypocritical hopolophobic weasel, is an Elite! When he is convicted and in prison, then I will believe this is genuine.
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