Fewer than three weeks before actor Alec Baldwin is due to go on trial in Santa Fe, New Mexico, prosecutors have said that he “engaged in horseplay with the revolver”, including firing a blank round at a crew member on the set of Rust before the tragic accident occurred.
Baldwin is facing involuntary manslaughter charges in the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
In new court documents, prosecutors said they plan to bring new evidence to support their case that the 66-year-old actor and producer was reckless with firearms while filming on the set and displayed “erratic and aggressive behavior during the filming” that created potential safety concerns.
Prosecutors in the case, which is due to go to trial on 10 July, have previously alleged that to watch Baldwin’s conduct on the set of Rust “is to witness a man who has absolutely no control of his own emotions and absolutely no concern for how his conduct affects those around him”.
In the latest filing, special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Erlinda Johnson allege that Baldwin pointed his gun and fired “a blank round at a crew member while using that crew member as a line of site as his perceived target”.
Unfortunately, guns are deceptively simple. Just about anything that can detonate a realistic looking blank is capable of firing an actual bullet. And even if it’s just a blank, any obstruction in the barrel can end up becoming an ad-hoc projectile by the force. Every once in a while, you have that happen in Civil War re-enactments.
Thats also how Brandon Lee died. Iirc there was a squib malfunction that they didn’t notice so when they shot a blank, the round was pushed out and killed him.
We could get around this by having specific calibers that only come in blanks.
Not really though because still, if anything is in the barrel, it becomes a projectile.
Ok but that’s a separate issue and something that can happen with a regular gun loaded with a regular caliber blank, what they’re saying is fake guns for movies should use a caliber for which no bullets exist, solving the main part of the issue, i.e. the fact that someone can load a normal bullet in a gun that is to be used as a prop.
This would help avoid this specific death, but not most others where the projectile wasn’t an actual bullet from a live round, but something stuck in the barrel, like the other person says.
This situation was unusual in the sense that an incompetent armorer had live rounds on set, and the gun was loaded with one.
What I mean is that the main part of the issue is exactly not this.
Did anybody ask about most others, or were we having a highly specific conversation about a very real and somewhat recent event?
First,
… doesn’t seem relevant, since saying something doesn’t require you personally asking about it at all, second,
… answers your question, and that quote is most of the original comment, I could even have quoted the whole of it.
Pot Calls the Kettle irrelevant.
You’ve failed to read all of the comment I was answering to, which is not yours so it’s not clear what are you doing in this thread at all.
“most others”
Maybe I’m not paying enough attention to that, but is it really something that happens that often on movie sets where it’s something stuck in the barrel?
Most other cases where people were shot on set
You’ll have to help me because I can’t find any of those “most other cases”… I haven’t looked before the 90s though
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_and_television_accidents
Brandon Lee? And someone else whom I can’t remember
It’s not a separate issue. It’s exactly how Brandon Lee died. It was just a piece of a bullet, not even a complete one. Lots of hard objects that can get lodged in there that instantly become a lethal projectile.
Besides this person wants “realistic recoil.” That requires a lot of force. So it’s always a risk.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_and_television_accidents
It’s not a common issue in general and taking preventive measures to prevent at least one risk is a good step in the right direction.
From the description of the incident it seems like Lee wouldn’t be dead if they had used a gun in which it was impossible to put real bullets in the first place.
That is exactly what we are saying. They should not use firearms that are capable of launching projectiles. Which is exactly what happened on the set of Rust.
As a camera operator I have no desire to die for somebody else’s art. Especially not just because they want a more realistic looking firearm/recoil.