Alec Baldwin fired prop gun ***trigger?

What happened to Alec was horrible. People are talking about safety procedures and how to keep this from happening on TV/movie sets, yet it happens far to often in schools. 

TMZ article article posted about half an hour ago.  States that the gun in the AB incident was allegedly being used for off-set target practice by crew members.  Unbelievable that they didn't have tighter control over the guns on set if this is found to be true.

Sadly, this doesn't surprise me given the number of accidental gun injuries and deaths that happen every frigging day in this country.

The three previous incidences on set weren't investigated and didn't trigger a safety review. The armorer on set was a 24 year old woman whose main qualification seems to be her father is a veteran armorer. 

Stories coming out about the AD:

"The assistant director on the set of "Rust," where Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza, had a history of failing to maintain a "safe working environment," a former colleague has said.

In a statement to NBC News, Maggie Goll, a prop maker who worked with assistant director Dave Halls on Hulu's "Into the Dark" anthology series in February 2019, cited numerous examples of Hall's allegedly unsafe practices.

In one instance, Goll told NBC News, Halls decided to keep filming after a pyrotechnician had a medical emergency and the set had become dangerous.

Goll also said that, on the set of "Into the Dark," Halls neglected to hold safety meetings or make announcements before the appearance of a gun."

www.insider.com/rust-shooting-assistant-director-failed-keep-sets-safe-former-colleague-2021-10

So as a registered gun owner, I do think Alec Baldwin has some responsibility here. Was it an accident? Yes. I do not believe he intended to harm anyone. But I also think he has some responsibility as a person who was pointing a gun to make sure (and absolutely verify) that the gun was not loaded when he knew he planned to shoot it. Baldwin has responsibly has a producer to make sure his set is safe for his crew. Now should he go to jail for this? I don't know but my gut says no. But I am not ready to just say 'poor Alec' either. If you are handling a gun, you check to see if its loaded. PERIOD. It shouldn't matter if your prop guy, your husband, or your dad tells you it is unloaded. You check and verify, every time. And if you aren't willing to do that, then don't handle a real gun.

Something weird was said this morning on the radio during their entertainment news bit... Alec was seen having breakfast with the husband and son of the gal who was killed.

If this is true, is this weird? Seems weird to me. A few days after your wife is killed you are having breakfast with Alec?

I don’t know if it’s probable but I wouldn’t say weird. he may have reached out in kindness, checking on them, feeling the weight of responsibility. They have to know he didn’t intend to kill her.

So here we are, days later, and the local PD has not issued any statement about what happened. The only information anyone has is anecdotal information from people on the set. At first I thought they might be waiting until they had interviewed everyone, but the news media still hasn't been informed about whether it was a bullet, shrapnel, etc. or any other information about what happened that day.

Thank you for saying this. My husband and I are also registered gun owners and we take handling guns very seriously.
I've said this same thing in a couple of groups I belong to and had my ass handed to me. Not one person thought that Baldwin should've checked that gun. They said it wasn't his responsibility.

My son (who has worked on movie sets) walked me through the several steps that are taken by the people on set who ARE responsible for checking the gun and claimed that the actor would be flouting protocol by checking it himself after the hired experts do. 

His argument is it’s much more than “It’s not the actor’s responsibility,” which makes it seem that it COULD BE his responsibility and he chooses not to out of disinterest or poor personal safety priorities.  It’s more that he is INSTRUCTED to leave it to the experts. It’s not analogous to being a responsible gun owner any more than using other potentially dangerous props on a film is analogous to bring a responsible scuba diver or skydiver or whatever. Are there big name stars who do it? Possibly, because of their clout. But it’s neither routine or encouraged.

My take: I don’t think we should cast blame on somebody following industry standards. Also, I’m not going to judge a widower who accepted a breakfast invitation during which shared grief or healing or arrangements could have happened.  

I think one issue is understanding what a “prop gun” is. I had no idea that real guns with real bullets were being used. That’s not a prop in my mind. So I think people may just be reacting to what responsibility is necessary for handling something that isn’t supposed to be dangerous. If someone hands me a toy oven, I’m not going to check and make sure the burners are cool before touching it.

However, given that they are real guns and apparently even blanks can kill, moving forward, everyone should check every time. All standard gun safety protocols can’t be in place though bc actors are literally playing with the weapons. I don’t think gun safety is compatible with acting. The proper respect for a a deadly weapon can’t be accomplished when playing pretend.

Yeah, and what I don't get about the "he should have checked" logic is, if he'd checked and seen it loaded, would he know the difference between a blank and a bullet? If he was just rehearsing, wouldn't he just assume he could shoot it as a rehearsal, armed with a blank?

The whole reason they use blanks is so they have a flash, sound and recoil. I'd assume an actor would want that in their rehearsal.

Gonna have to agree to disagree.

Edited- forgot to add ‘agree’.

Some of you are talking about this from the side of a gun-owner. Some of us are not gun owners. I wouldn’t know the difference between a blank and a bullet. If I was actress, I would assume the “prop” handed to me was safe. This incident is so tragic. I believe the fault lies with whomever was responsible for watching over the props.