It's an old lawyers meme. "The wheel of Justice grinds exceedingly show, but it grinds exceedingly fine."
Well, it seems that the Alec Baldwin moment that led to the death of producer Halyna Hutchins is still rumbling around the courts. And, we learn today that the armorer has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in that case.
A jury convicted Gutierrez-Reed, 26, after three hours of deliberation, finding she was ultimately responsible for the live rounds on set, one of which killed Hutchins when it was fired from a gun held by actor Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal.
We talked about this several years ago, and my mind hasn't changed. The question that remains is if the wheel of justice will grind on Mr. Baldwin himself?
When the Rust shooting incident happened, Aesop explained at length why the prop master/armorer is the person responsible for all firearm handling on set. And Aesop should know, as he has been the RN/paramedic on staff for numerous Hollywood movies filmings.
ReplyDeleteHe has also pointed out just how firearm ignorant most Hollywood actors/actresses are, Keanu Reeves being a noted exception. Apparently Keanu likes to shoot 3-gun, and is very good at it.
Why would a movie set have live rounds on it at all? Especially when an actual gun is going to be used in the movie. Seems odd to me.
ReplyDeletejuvat
Yeah that seems like a no brainer. If we needed a shot where a revolver looked loaded (or whatever) I would remove the powder/ primer then put the bullet back in.
DeleteOk fine, she is partly responsible. But the person who pointed the pistol and pulled the trigger is the one most responsible. The weapon did not point itself and the trigger did not misfunction.
ReplyDeleteJuvat, the story I heard at the time is the crew were using the gun for recreational shooting in the off hours, so there were live rounds in the area and not just blank or dummy rounds
ReplyDeleteBut the person who pointed the pistol and pulled the trigger is the one most responsible.
ReplyDeleteExcept that IS NOT how it works in the movie industry. The armorer/prop master is 100% responsible for firearms on set. Accidents such as this are extremely rare in the movie industry.
In this case, the armorer handed Alex Baldwin the gun, and called out "Cold gun" to the director/producer. Except that it wasn't...
But who *hired* the armorer?
ReplyDelete