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© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Baldwin was told gun was 'cold' before movie set shooting
By MORGAN LEE and WALTER BERRY SANTA FE, New Mexico©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
81 Comments
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snowymountainhell
Just 6 hours ago, Alec Baldwin, with no attorney, issued a public statement via Twitter and informally addressed this tragedy and offered condolences & support to the grieving families of the deceased & injured:
snowymountainhell
Local media just updated just 1hr ago:
“Investigators cannot confirm nor deny if the ammunition was in fact a live round, said Juan Ríos, a spokesman for the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office. Deputies are still at the movie set collecting evidence, and witness interviews are underway, he added.” -
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/baldwin-no-words-to-convey-my-shock-and-sadness/article_73bc2302-334d-11ec-b2b6-6f5fe3cd1edd.html -
kwatt
It looks like someone loaded real bullets in the gun. Guns should be checked before filming a shooting scene.
Hito Bito
Two people were shot!
"The union is to vote soon on a new contract with producers after threatening to strike in recent weeks over issues including long hours and on-set safety.
The ironies keep building up in this case. Tragic.
Mike Kamei
Always Be Checking the weapons!
NOMINATION
These low budget film has been doomed from the start. Labor trouble with staff working long hours, strikes, cutting corners often, etc. Something was bound to happen with all of this carelessness on the set.
Ah_so
Don't remember you raising any concerns previously.
hooktrunk2
With all the money in Hollywood you'd think someone could invent a prop gun that 1) looked real but was impossible to load real bullets into and 2) didn't have the potential to hurt or kill even when firing blanks.
William77
What a tragedy,such things should not happen in a professional set.
RIP to that poor Lady.
bass4funk
Not particularly the American way, but logically the legal and standard way. Accident or not, Baldwin killed someone so either he or the studio, someone will have to pay and compensate these families, medical bills. Again, can’t stand Baldwin as a person, but in this situation I feel bad for him, he didn’t want this, but someone screwed up and there are always consequences to that, now what form that should be in, that’s a legal issue that the courts will have to make.
ShinkansenCaboose
A gun stuffed with anything even with blanks can be quite lethal. Even a BB gun can be lethal.
u_s__reamer
Apparently Baldwin was given a prop gun loaded with live ammunition by an ass-istant director!? Bruce Lee Redux! But how did Baldwin come to shoot her in the chest? Many questions to be answered, and somebody will have to answer for this "accident" before a judge. This tragic case will leave many grieving, but let's hope that in the end this strange incident is explained and resolved to everyone's satisfaction.
ShortMemories
I don't understand how two people get shot, wouldn't you drop the gun in shock after the first?
I don't understand why the cinematographer got shot. Why is he pointing at her and not another actor when pulling the trigger?
Hopefully things will be clearer later.
Baldwin tweeted a while back after policy wrongly shot someone "I wonder what it's like to wrongly kill someone". sadly he's finding out.
Kobe White Bar Owner
Makes me think of Brandon Lee.
Harry_Gatto
Baldwin is to blame. What he did was not intentional I'm sure but it was his responsibility to make sure the gun was safe, it was in his hands after all. Everyone knows not to point an unloaded gun at anyone else. I don't know if Baldwin is a gun owner and user but he broke one of the cardinal rules.
There seems to be a lack of detail regarding what exactly happened but I'm sure it will all come out soon.
stormcrow
This is not a political issue. This was a tragic accident in which someone has died as a result. Something went horribly wrong in a work related accident….that’s all.
NOMINATION
Where were the JT articles on this movie before yesterday? The troubles of this movie have been well known and covered on other sites.
porto
If the article is to be believed, she was behind the camera doing her job. Just about every movie with gunfights features multiple scenes with actors shoot towards the camera.
Peter14
The first thing you do when handed a gun is check if it is loaded, and you make it safe. Baldwin's first mistake was not taking ownership of the guns condition when he took possession. While he will never make that mistake again, it is too late for one person.
The second thing he did wrong was point it at someone and pull the trigger. They were not filming so there should have been no reason to do such a thing.
A tragedy that should have been avoided.
snowymountainhell
Appears ALL comments made prior to the 12:00pm editorial changes and editions were unaware that there were, in fact, “live rounds” in the gun handed to Baldwin by the Assistant Director. - Can’t fault those users for their speculations on the limited information available at that early time. Moving forward…
Helix
Live gun or no, it still does not explain why Baldwin was pointing it at Hutchins
Movie scenes are all illusion. That particular filmed scene could have called just for Baldwin to be aiming and firing. She may have been standing in the, supposedly safe, line of fire. Simple as that.
ulysses
Sorry for the victim's families, a tragic accident and I feel sorry for Baldwin too, he'll carry it for a long time.
Seems like the gun was handed to Baldwin without a proper check, so unfortunately someone is responsible and will face consequences.
runner3
Shortmemories,
I don't understand how two people get shot, wouldn't you drop the gun in shock after the first?
The bullet went through her into him.
bob
How sad that certain people need to make a tragedy into another bizarre rant about their hatred for the United States. One woman, a wife and mother of 2, is dead, and another in hospital. And this is your only thought? How sad that is.
I have no love of Baldwin and his extreme left-wing views, but I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.
snowymountainhell
Informative. Appreciate to editorial content updates AND the included educational links to AP but 2pm is the 3rd generation of the headline for this story today.
2:00pm 3rd headline change: “Baldwin was told gun was 'cold' before movie set shooting”
12:00pm: “Warrant: Baldwin didn’t know weapon contained live round”;
Original Headline 6:00am: “Baldwin: Killing of cinematographer was ‘tragic accident’”
A yellow highlighted Note:, within the comments, as JT’s done in other threads as the article is updated would be equally appreciated.
The Avenger
First rule with firearms is to always treat them as if they are loaded. It doesn't matter what anyone else says when they hand you a gun. You have to verify for yourself that the gun is not loaded.
WA4TKG
Note Avenger; above
Harry_Gatto
Why would the cart have a loaded gun on it anyway?
GreenPeas
He was probably pointing the gun toward the camera for effect, and she was right behind it filming the scene. If he believed the gun had blanks and not a real bullet then he probably wasn't concerned about accuracy.
Brian Wheway
How on earth do you have live ammo on a film location like this? you know that an actor is going to use a gun in a scene it should be loaded with blanks just at the point of filming then the gun should be stored for safety, why were these guns left unattended? it seems like it just lax procedures were in place, what a shame about this poor lady and her work colleague, I dont know if any prossicution will be filled against the actor, but on the other hand he did shoot her. what a mess that could have been easily been avoided.
BeerDeliveryGuy
Apparently a large portion of the crew was replaced by non-union locals a few days before the incident.
That would create multiple possibilities as to why there was a live round in the gun.
Maybe a new crew member supplied a gun that was not properly checked. Maybe some crew members were fooling around and shooting live rounds in their free time with prop weapons and forgot a live round….
BeerDeliveryGuy
And as other posters have mentioned, almost all movies that include a dramatic scene of a character firing a gun will capture that image from the front. The DOP and Director are usually directly behind the camera.
cleo
An armorer on the BBC this morning was saying that whenever a scene calls for a shot to be fired in the direction of the camera the camera is set on a tripod and there is no one behind or anywhere near the camera.
Attilathehungry
I am thinking that Baldwin, as a rule, has very little knowledge of actual firearms and probably doesnt own any. His experience may be limited to the props he uses to make movies. As such, he hasn't learned the proper respect for guns, or basic safety precautions. To him, they are toys that make noise.
Not a fan of his views, but that is irrelevant here. There are genuine victims that need sympathy and compensation.
cleo
If someone handed me a gun on a film set and told me it was a prop, I would assume it was just that, a fake made to look real enough to fool the camera. I would not for a moment imagine it was a lethal weapon., any more than a kid’s water pistol is a lethal weapon,
Why on earth would anyone bring a real gun to a film set??
Unless it was done deliberately.….
snowymountainhell
Maybe this @Attilathehungry current L.A. Times account will get other readers to better understand and get, perhaps some, to put aside their agendas and empathize with all persons on set at the time of the fatal incident:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-10-22/alec-baldwin-rust-camera-crew-walked-off-set
bass4funk
Anything that fires any sort of projectile should be examined before using, that would be my common sense. I don’t care if it’s a Nerf gun.
You can do a lot of damage with a BB gun
And that is what the police are looking into. This is a very strange situation. It should never have happened and someone is in real trouble for this.
snowymountainhell
A full, on set “eyewitness” account was provided earlier @7:58pm bass4funk from the more conclusive L.A. Times article: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-10-22/alec-baldwin-rust-camera-crew-walked-off-set. It is referenced, again, by teenage sister-station cbs42 article posted later but those were just “three people not authorized to speak and… unnamed’ who left the set prior to the incident in question.
Harry_Gatto
To fire blanks realistically requires a real gun.
bass4funk
Not only that but the audiences have gotten smarter over the years and in movie making you want to create realism and get as close as you can, using a plastic gun will give the film a B-movie look and that is something you don't want.
ReynardFox
I feel terrible for Baldwin. Something about this seems off. There really shouldn’t be any reason for live ammo to be anywhere near a movie set. Blanks? Yes. Dummy rounds? Yes. Live ammo? No way. Ultimately this is a tragedy that Baldwin really couldn’t have avoided. He trusted that the armorer did their job right and they didn’t.
I don’t expect Baldwin is going to face any criminal charges. Then again, I still don’t envy the fact that he’s going to have to live with this. Any criminal negligence charges will probably lie at the feet of the armorer and/or propmaster.
Remeber, folks. When you use scabs, you get what you pay for…
bob
well, it looks as though Cleo has made up her mind, despite a complete dearth of details, that Alec Baldwin was set up by some nefarious character to kill the cinematographer and possibly the director.
Cleo assures us on a weekly basis that she is sober-minded and therefore has thought this through.
cleo
No, either he set out to kill them deliberately by pretending not to know the gun was loaded so he could shoot them in full view of everyone else on the set and still claim innocence; or he was totally stupid and irresponsible in waving a loaded gun around like it was a toy.
There isn't a complete dearth of details.
We know the gun was obviously loaded, because it killed one person and injured another; we know that there is no reason at all for a loaded gun to be anywhere near a film set; and we know that Baldwin was told it was a prop.
Even I can tell the difference between a BB gun and a water pistol.
I didn't understand why so many posters were roasting Baldwin for what genuinely seems to have been a tragic mistake/accident. Only just realised he's the bloke who did a spoof on Trump on Saturday Night Live. That's why the We-Know-All-There-Is-to-Know-About-Guns tribe are out for his blood.
Can't keep politics out of anything? Pathetic.
theFu
Ignorance of firearms by an anti-gun rights person.
5 minutes of training would have prevented this. That's the fault of Baldwin AND the "armourer" with most of the blame on the prop team for having real bullets uncontrolled on a set. There are industry standards for dealing with any firearm on a set - that includes fakes, props, and real firearms. The "armourer" is responsible for providing anyone touching the firearms with induction training.
There are some famous actors who refuse to point any firearm in their movies and have been that way for decades.
Ultimately, safety on set is the responsibility of the producer, the director and the first assistant director (First AD).
Strangerland
How does anyone criticize Baldwin for this? They handed him a gun and told him it was safe ("cold"), and he shot it. I don't see any intent on his part, nor negligence.
cleo
And on a film set, that's what they should be.
Sven Asai
Every gun is cold, only stupid using warm hands make it hot.
Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne
There are some ridiculous comments about this tragedy.
If someone hands you a gun and tells you its not loaded and you believe them then your not fit to handle a gun.
Regardless if its a Prop gun , fake gun or toy gun its still a gun.
Whomever pulled the trigger should take responsibility for their actions.
And the correct safety gear for anyone working in the area as accidents can and do happen due to human negligence.
Movie set or not there's no excuse !
1glenn
In the interest of saving money, safety shortcuts were implemented, with tragic results.
Brian Wheway
Here are a few links to safty procedures on film sets: so there is safety procedures in place, who is responsable for the death and injury of two people?, it seems that it should be down to the armour, he or she is pretty much responsible for the checking of these guns.
https://news.sky.com/story/what-safety-measures-are-in-place-on-us-film-sets-and-what-other-deaths-have-there-been-12440927
https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/central/advice/filming/guidance-for-scenes-involving-weapons.pdf
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/prop-guns-movie-sets-1.6221637
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2021/10/23/22741990/gun-safety-rules-movie-sets-state-regulations-brandon-lee-alec-baldwin-rust-accidental-shooting
Helix
The person firing the gun is as responsible as every other link in the chain that put it in his hands.
Helix
You NEVER assume a gun is safe no matter who tells you it is. You always check it yourself.
Helix
The armourer was a tattooed 24 year old incompetent who doubted her own competence. Appallingly, there had been mishaps and live bullets flying in the days previous to the killing and, unbelievably, nothing was done. This is incomprehensible. Were they all high on drugs? It’s the only explanation that makes any sense.
Helix
aStrangerland How does anyone criticize Baldwin for this? They handed him a gun and told him it was safe ("cold"), and he shot it. I don't see any intent on his part, nor negligence.
“I didn’t know the gun was loaded”, has never been a credible excuse, and does, in fact, show extreme negligence.
Helix
Ultimately this is a tragedy that Baldwin really couldn’t have avoided.
You have never handled a firearm, obviously.
Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne
Thats why its called a tragedy because it could have bin avoided !
Chad Leigh
Baldwin ignored the most fundamental firearms handling rules, the most basic of which is to always personally check and know the status of the firearm in hand. Even if you see the person check it and it is safe, when handed to you, you always perform the check yourself.
More importantly, Baldwin ignored the rules used in Hollywood film shooting regarding prop firearms. An acquaintance of mine is a director in Hollywood, and he made a post that outlines the exact rules, policies, and procedures that govern prop firearms at a movie shoot. Baldwin, who was an actor, but also the producer in this film, were willfully not following these rules and procedures. Baldwin, in my book, is therefore to be held liable/accountable since he knowingly ignored the rules that are in force on a movie set (which include the basic rules of firearms handling that everyone should be following). This is not a "finger slipped" accident, but a willful violation of policy and procedure and he should be held accountable (and in jail).
ADK99
Those who are blaming Baldwin for not checking that the chamber was empty: I'm by no means an expert so may be missing something, but as far as I understand it "prop guns" are often intentionally not empty. A blank, for example, is still a round in the chamber.
Hence the designation of someone on set to be constantly present and responsible at all times for the condition of the guns.
There is doubtless a case to be made for him bearing some responsibility as producer for overall safety on set. However, as actors it seems ridiculous to expect them to be the experts-in-charge of firearms on set.
Chad Leigh
There are specific protocols that are used on film sets, which include lots of checks, as well as familiarization with the firearm by the armourer with the actor. He would have known. (And yes, a live round will look different). Baldwin is also the producer of the film, and has a higher responsibility. This is 100% on him.
ADK99