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Gun Safety and Hollywood
4 years ago
General
In eternity, where there is no time, nothing can grow. Nothing can become. Nothing changes. So death created time to grow the things that it would kill and you are reborn but into the same life that you've always been born into.
I've opted to avoid jumping on the bandwagon for the time being while waiting to see what comes from the investigation, but for those who don't know, while filming a Western called "Rust", actor Alec Baldwin was given a "prop" firearm that was declared "cold" (meaning no live ammunition, real, blanks, or otherwise) and a negligent discharge ensued that injured the director and killed another crew member. In the time since, it's been coming out that conditions on the set of that particular movie have been pretty horrific and the sheer level of incompetence had actually resulted in numerous negligent discharges from firearms that were supposed to have been "safe". Among other safety issues, the lead armorer on the project actually used their own personal firearms, which was used by themselves and other crew members to do recreational shooting between filming aaaaaand that crosses the line into a level of stupidity that is really just insane.
Alec Baldwin himself has also come under fire (pun intended) for his part in the incident. Part of the reason for this scrutiny in the gun community has to do with Baldwin's open anti-gun stance, which I think is in poor taste. His own history has also had a number of news sources implying that he shot the crew members intentionally, which is also in remarkably poor taste. What does give me pause though is that Baldwin is actually a producer on the project, which could mean a lot or it could mean shit. Producer and Executive Producer credits on movies are given out like candy to anyone who has even the smallest input on a film. But a big name actor like Baldwin also likely had more than just a little influence on the project and at the time of the incident, multiple crew members had actually walked from the project while citing safety issues. So it does sound to me like it's one of those issues where everyone who touched the "props" bear some culpability in the tragedy that happened.
Those are just my two cents and I could be very wrong.
Alec Baldwin himself has also come under fire (pun intended) for his part in the incident. Part of the reason for this scrutiny in the gun community has to do with Baldwin's open anti-gun stance, which I think is in poor taste. His own history has also had a number of news sources implying that he shot the crew members intentionally, which is also in remarkably poor taste. What does give me pause though is that Baldwin is actually a producer on the project, which could mean a lot or it could mean shit. Producer and Executive Producer credits on movies are given out like candy to anyone who has even the smallest input on a film. But a big name actor like Baldwin also likely had more than just a little influence on the project and at the time of the incident, multiple crew members had actually walked from the project while citing safety issues. So it does sound to me like it's one of those issues where everyone who touched the "props" bear some culpability in the tragedy that happened.
Those are just my two cents and I could be very wrong.
What's going on in the aftermath of this particular incident is absolutely disgusting. Absolutely no regard for safety was considered, at all. Numerous people involved in production, including Baldwin (who I'm quickly losing sympathy for) are arguing that the crew members who came forward saying that there were serious safety violations are lying. The armorer who is most directly responsible for the incident lawyered up (definitely not a bad idea), but her lawyer has actually gone so far as to suggest that a disgruntled crew member put a live round in with the dummy rounds that were used in order to sabotage the movie's production. Granted, anything is possible, but considering said hypothetical crew member would not have been able to guarantee their own safety when the firearm went off, I find it extremely unlikely.
So yeah, everybody who is in some way responsible is pointing fingers at someone else. However bad any of them feel about this tragedy, they clearly don't feel bad enough.