Man who handed Baldwin loaded gun breaks silence

"It's my hope that this tragedy prompts the industry to re-evaluate its values and practices to ensure no one is harmed through the creative process again," 

What a self-serving, cynical hypocrite. The industry’s values and practices in regards to gun safety on film sets are exemplary as shown by its track record, and need no “re-evaluating”.

What does need investigation is the repeated flouting of those values and practices and the shocking carelessness of those involved, from Alec Baldwin on down during the production of the Baldwin film.

Baldwin did nothing wrong. The folks responsible for ensuring their were no live rounds in the gun before it was handed to him are to blame.

Baldwin did nothing wrong. The folks responsible for ensuring their were no live rounds in the gun before it was handed to him are to blame.

Baldwin saw with his own eyes that safety procedures were not being followed. And on top of that there had been three accidental discharges of firearms, with bullets flying, on the set in the days prior to him shooting those two people. What kind of idiot, with all the previous screw-ups, would trust that a gun handed to him on that film set from hell was safe, and then point it at people and pull the trigger with no thought of checking for himself?

And still you believe Baldwin is blameless. That takes some stretch of “logic”.

I used to think that Baldwin did nothing wrong, but he did. He set the standards for the set and has responsibility as part of the production team.

On a low-budget set, the producers are always pushing to cut corners. They did that by hiring someone unqualified to be the armorer AND by not making safety an overriding priority. When you say a gun is clear, you should prove it to the person you hand it to. That means clearly showing the state to both yourself AND the person receiving it. Baldwin has been on other sets and certainly has seen how other armorers handled weapons. When he saw something different, as the producer, it was his job to say something, at a minimum. Union members had already walked off the set (quit) due to safety issues. That also says much about the overall production.

They did NOT walk off the set due to "safety issues." They wanted hotels closer to the set.

Most accidents are a series of bad judgements or incompetence. This assistant director had been written up more than once for not following firearm protocols on other movies.

The "armorer" was also incompetent. Handguns had been "accidentally" discharged twice by a stunt double with live ammunition on previous days.

Baldwin pulled the trigger