Alec Baldwin’s solution to movie set gun safety... really?

[Armybrat]

He calls for a police officer to be present on any movie set that features gun use.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alec-baldwin-shooting-rust-police-officers-movie-tv-sets-guns/

Geeze, as if having a competent armorer and a certified range safety officer instead wouldn’t mitigate careless morons like him.

[JohnR]

Ygbsm.

[Bawanna]

Many police officers don't really know all that much about guns, other than what they carry on duty. Certainly they know safety but to most the gun is like the hammer on a carpenters tool belt.

The armorer idea is perfect, just not some tattooed crossdresser want to be something else type.

The guns should be distributed directly from the armorer to the actor, no director or anybody else yelling cold gun and handing the gun to the actor. Sure it was bad practice for Baldwin to not double check but he's just an actor paid to do what they tell him and how to do it.
For sure there should be no target practice in the desert with prop/movie guns and no live ammo anywhere near where they are shooting the film.
The armorer on this set dropped the ball, the director or whoever grabbed the gun from the cart and yelled cold gun dropped the ball. He just grabbed apparently didn't check (probably didn't know how). Comedy of sad errors.

[JohnR]

The cop is there to arrest Alec when he screws up again.

[AJBert]

This is a hidden Hollywood ploy saying, "We actors are not competent enough to be trusted to handle a real firearm. We are not competent enough to be trained to handle a firearm safely, nor should we be bothered to have to take safety lessons. We are the stars of everyone's life, therefor someone else will be responsible if/when we shoot someone during filming."

In other words, "It's not my fault!"

[sorcerer]

At a gun show I used to go to they had a Minnesota state fair police officer checking fire arms and zip tie the actions open. One of them had a ND of his own duty gun. Very early in my carry career, first show after I received my permit, being stupid I handed my carry gun to the officer to clear and zip tie. I realized very quickly that I had made a mistake when I had to instruct him how to clear a Kahr.

[Tilos]

Ultimately, the person attached to the finger on the trigger is responsible for what comes out of the barrel, no one else.
just sayin'
.

[getsome]

Let me start by saying that I totally support Police Officers and the job they do but sometimes there is a Barney Fife in the bunch…..My wife’s cousin was married to a guy named Mike who was an Army MP and very soon after he got out of the military they married and he got a job with the Gwinnett County Ga Police Dept and one day we were at their house for their young sons birthday party and he wanted to show me his new back up S&W 9mm revolver which at the time I didn’t know they made a J frame in 9 mil but he kept pulling it out of his pocket and pointing it at my head to show how easy it came out…..I asked if I could hold it and he proudly said sure…..I immediately opened the cylinder and removed the 5 live rounds and examined the revolver and handed the pistol and loose ammo back hoping that he realized what a stupid mistake he had made but without embarrassing him but he reloaded the gun and stuck it back in his pocket like nothing had happened……..Mike was later fired from Gwinnett Police after totaling his 3rd Police car…..Shortly after that they divorced and hopefully I will never come across him again and if there was one guy that should not have ever been hired as a Police Officer or held a badge it was him…..

[DavidR]

The fact that after this incident, for which he may be criminally and civilly liable, he and his wife can’t keep their mouths shut says a lot about who they are.

[tokuno]

Attempt at delegation of responsibility and therefore liability. If the private movie production company skimps on costs to cut financial and procedural corners but they've delegated authority to the public servant, then they're scot-free, and any liability (and expense) is on us, the public. Lovely.

[SlowBurn]

It appears someone “poisoned” the box of blanks they use with one or more live rounds. Pure evil, but that’s the world we’re in. Having a cop on the set would have done nothing.

The only partial solution may be to factory seal those boxes and keep them locked up once opened, like medicine, but that’s not foolproof if a saboteur is determined.

Of course if that arrogant maroon had taken even one NRA safety lesson and followed the rules, no one would have been hurt. There’s no real solution other than banning fools like Baldwin from handling firearms.

[dustnchips]

I'd like to know how they determined someone put a live round in a box of blanks, and how the armorer or person checking/loading the gun did not notice it. Shifting the blame to some unknown evil person to avoid the responsibility. Sounds fishy to me.

[mr surveyor]

I would like to see a picture with side by side comparison of their "blanks" and their "live rounds"


jd

[Bawanna]

I was going to say the same thing, usually blanks look nothing like live ammo but maybe for Hollywood they have blanks that look the same.

[Armybrat]

A Hollywood actor probably couldn’t tell a live round from a toilet plunger.

[Bawanna]

Except maybe Steven Segal, or a few others.

[getsome]

A blank round looks like if you took an empty brass case and crimped the nose to come to a point…..Anyone here could tell the difference in their sleep…..I’m not sure how a live round found it’s way into the gun that day but a real .45 SAA revolver should have never been allowed on the set and they did it because it was an ultra low budget picture and it was much cheaper than using a prop companies equipment…. On a real Hollywood A budget film they would rent “Prop” guns from companies that take real weapons and modify them to only be capable of firing blanks, never real live ammo and those companies deliver the guns and only their employees maintain and load the blanks……Apparently the low budget for “Rust” was the reason real weapons were used and the so called armorer that shouldn’t have been anywhere near a firearm was only part of the problem…..Alec Baldwin was handed a gun and told it was cold but was only supposed to practice pulling and pointing it at the camera but not cocking and pulling the trigger which he did without ever checking his weapon and someone died and the cause of her death was not an accident but gross negligence all around…….

[Armybrat]

Except maybe Steven Segal, or a few others.

Well yeah, but just a handful.

[Bawanna]

Maybe not even a full handful. Some of them are real shooters though. Maybe more shooters than actors which in my book is a good thing.

[Planedude]

Many years ago (1990?), while BS-ing at the trap and skeet club, one of the members talked about building blanks for a movie company. All were in 45 Colt and he bult up about 100/150 rounds. Some were once fired, with the primer still holding the firing pin mark. These rounds had a #40 (.099) hole drilled in the side. These rounds looked right when pointed at the camera, but the fired primers made "checking" them thru the loading gate simple and positive. Many rounds were loaded with "dead" primers but had the same hole drilled in their side. These were made to be carried in the loops of the actor's gun belts, the holes had to be in a very specific distance from their base, so the loops would cover the holes. 12 rounds were loaded with "dead" primers, normal lead bullets and no holes drilled in the side. These rounds were very specialty painted and numbered with a paint that could only be seen with "black-light". They were given to the crew in a locking steel box with three keys (each numbered) and a log book for in-and-out tracking as well as the ID light. These rounds were used when the actors were filming closeup reloading scenes and were (supposed to be) the most controlled rounds on the set.
The "real bang" rounds were of two loads, all of the star crimp type. some were loaded with black powder (and a buffer?) for a smoky bang when aimed away from the camera. Others were loaded with a smokeless powder for scenes when the guns were fired in the direction of the camera, so that smoke did not obscure the actors faces. Each type had a ring of paint around the primer that identified the load (red or blue, if I remember right).
The whole job, he remembered, took him two weeks to complete and it paid the old guy about $1200 bucks. He used the cash to buy himself and new trap gun. I was impressed with the level of detail and safety demonstrated by the production company. Obviously, standards have fallen off since then. I don't recall the movie, but it was about Texas Rangers chasing bad guys...

peace