News of the World: Under the Gun

 

A couple of weeks ago on the New Mexico set of a film called "Rust", a tragedy occurred. 

A loaded gun in the hand of actor Alec Baldwin went off, injuring director Joel Souza and killing director of photography Halyna Hutchins.

By all accounts to date, the shooting appears to be a most tragic accident and Alec Baldwin feels really bad about what happened. 

Still there are questions. 

What was Baldwin doing with a real gun?  He was in rehearsal, blocking for an upcoming scene. Usually during this phase, the actor does not have a gun but rather uses a mock up, something made of rubber, virtually a toy gun.  The use of a real gun in rehearsal or blocking is unnecessary.   

Why were there live rounds in the gun?  Even when a real gun is on the set, there is no need for anything other than blanks to be in the gun if the gun is even loaded at all.  Apparently the gun had been used by some of the crew for target practice. Which is a violation of protocol for gun use on a movie set.  The gun should only be touched by the armorer and whoever actually needs it on set such as an actor or the director.  

Did Baldwin mishandle the gun?  There was a call out that the gun was "cold" meaning no live ammunition.  A lot of fire arm safety experts agree that the chain of responsibility does not end there, that whoever is holding the gun should also make sure the gun is not loaded.  

There is a counterargument that actors shouldn't mess with the gun and leave that to the armorers. 

There are some basic rules when it comes to fire arm safety:  

• Always know if the gun is loaded. 
• Keep the barrel pointed in a safe direction. 
• Never point a gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 
• Know your target and what lies beyond it.

On that movie set in New Mexico, up and down the chain of responsibility, all of these rules were broken at one point or another, leading to a tragic and deadly result. 

By the way, if you think any of this is remotely funny, Donald Trump Jr. has some merch he's ready to sell you: a t-shirt of hoodie that says "Guns don't kill people! Alec Baldwin kills people!"

Stay classy, Don Jr. 

Ultimately, this tragic tale under scores something that happens with some disheartening regularity in this country. For all the gun violence that occurs due to maliciousness or anger, a lot of people are injured and killed by guns because of carelessness and ignorance. 

When a gun is involved, one wrong move, one wrong decision can have painful or even fatal consequences.  

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BLOG NOTE: the review of Sunday's Doctor Who episode will post on Wednesday.