Crew member killed when shot by prop gun on set of Baldwin movie

[Sylvain]

A lot to cover here. There are more unknowns than knowns, that's for sure.

Taking a run at the knowns:

The Venn Diagram of INGO members and Alec Baldwin fan club members is two circles. Nothing wrong with that, just pointing it out. Our middle name is "Gun" and last name is "Owners" after all.

A very young and talented Cinematographer is dead, another crew member seriously wounded.

Multiple sources cite crew treatment and safety concerns. The lack of sleep noted by several caught my attention.

There is a huge difference between a "prop gun" and a "gun used as a prop".

Unknowns:

How did the live round get on the set?

Who loaded the live round into the firearm?

Why was a live round loaded into a firearm on a movie set?

What specific safety protocols were violated (for motion picture producation, not the 4 rules which were obviously violated)?

What were the specific sequence of events prior to the live round being fired?

Words such as "accident", "negligence", "culpability", "criminal behavior", "civil liability" will be applied, but to whom?

I'm curious what they call a "live round" to begin with.

To me a blank cartridge is a live round, it makes the gun go bang.
As opposed to a dummy or inert round.
Both are used in movies.

A cartridge with a primer, powder and a bullet is also a live round.
I don't think any movie would use those.

What kind did they use?

 

[Leadeye]

Law firms will sort out the liability and insurance companies will write checks, I don't see Baldwin doing any time and will be surprised if he's even charged with a felony, let alone convicted.

 

[Leadeye]

I'm curious what they call a "live round" to begin with.

To me a blank cartridge is a live round, it makes the gun go bang.
As opposed to a dummy or inert round.
Both are used in movies.

A cartridge with a primer, powder and a bullet is also a live round.
I don't think any movie would use those.

What kind did they use?

I make up dummy rounds all the time to check chambering with various bullets, no powder and no primer so it's pretty visible. That said I have checked pistols with live ammo, but cycling them manually. The gun in question was a Colt 1903 that would fire when the gun went into battery on occasion.

Movie blanks can be pretty powerful, but visible. In movies where belt fed guns are used you just have to use visible blanks.

 

[Gabriel]

Law firms will sort out the liability and insurance companies will write checks, I don't see Baldwin doing any time and will be surprised if he's even charged with a felony, let alone convicted.

This.

 

[Ark]

'I wasn't sure if I was ready': Doubts of 24-year-old head armorer

Filming for Rust, a Western set in 1880's Kansas which stars Alec Baldwin, was only the second time Gutierrez-Reed had lead a production's firearms department.

www.dailymail.co.uk

The person in charge of prop gun safety. Presented without comment.

 

[Amishman44]

Agreed
Maybe when a gun is going to be used on a set it should physically be shown to be clear or only loaded in front of people, right before being handed to the actor.
Not being familiar with how movies are produced, I'm kind of disturbed that it sounds like there was a loaded gun sitting on a cart unattended. Clearly the gun taken off the cart was never checked before handing it to Baldwin. Not to be funny but it sounds like a comedy of errors and carelessness that lead to tragedy. I mean what smart gun owner would ever think it's a good idea to load a gun, place it on a cart with two other guns, leave it unattended with numerous people walking around?
IANAL but, seems the armorer, AD and Baldwin all failed to exercise good judgement and very clearly failed to follow common sense gun safety protocols resulting in two being shot with one killed. Who's at fault criminally I don't know, we'll see.
Hey, maybe actors and the movie industry need to pass background checks and be forced to undergo some Common Sense Gun Safety Training before being allowed to handle a potentially deadly weapon.

Not only a gun left lying on a tray, but three (3) guns being left unattended on a tray!
The obvious question is...who had access to them and why would they need to handle them???
I suspect that movie actors don't have the same mentality (aka, 'respect') for firearms (loaded or unloaded) that every day carriers / shooters / and users have!!!

 

[KellyinAvon]

I'm curious what they call a "live round" to begin with.

To me a blank cartridge is a live round, it makes the gun go bang.
As opposed to a dummy or inert round.
Both are used in movies.

A cartridge with a primer, powder and a bullet is also a live round.
I don't think any movie would use those.

What kind did they use?

It seems like there’s a lot of different versions they use. With computer generated imagery I think a lot of movies don’t even use blanks anymore.

Just Kelly’s observation here, but if you’re too cheap to spring for hotels in Santa Fe, you’re probably too cheap to spring for CGI.

 

[hoosierdoc]

I think we need to know if these were real rounds or prop rounds.

I agree that Baldwin, assistant director and armorer messed up, at a minimum.

The AD likely had zero clue what they were doing but sounded cool yelling 'cold gun' all the time. You shouldn't declare something as fact that you haven't checked.

 

[JCSR]

'I wasn't sure if I was ready': Doubts of 24-year-old head armorer

Filming for Rust, a Western set in 1880's Kansas which stars Alec Baldwin, was only the second time Gutierrez-Reed had lead a production's firearms department.

www.dailymail.co.uk

The person in charge of prop gun safety. Presented without comment.

GUILTY......

 

[JCSR]

The armorer - Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the 24-year-old head armorer in charge of guns on Alec Baldwin film where cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was tragically shot and killed on Thursday had admitted she 'wasn't sure she was ready' for the job in an interview before filming started Gutierrez-Reed revealed her father only started teaching her about guns from age 16 and that most of her training had happened in the last couple of years. She described filming The Old Way earlier in the year as the start of a 'long' career. According to her LinkedIn page, she most recently worked as a videographer at Synth Fire, a California-based news and media company, and as a documentary filmmaker for the City of Flagstaff in Arizona. She worked as an armorer for Yellowstone film ranch between March and June 2021, but according to the page stopped working there three months before filming for Rust started in October. Gutierrez-Reed had only recently left Northern Arizona university, where she studied creative media and film between 2017 and 2020. The gun that fired the fatal shot was a vintage-style Colt revolver, DailyMail.com has exclusively learned. The warrant does not reveal the model or caliber of the prop gun that fired the fatal bullet, but the film is set in the Old West of the 1880s and DailyMail.com has learned it was a Colt. The warrant was obtained Friday so that investigators could document the scene at the ranch where the shooting took place. Unionized workers had walked off the set hours before the fatal shooting, after they complained about long hours, shoddy conditions and another safety incident days earlier involving 'two misfires' of a prop weapon. A yet-unnamed prop master who oversaw the gun used in the fatal shooting was a non-union worker who was 'just brought in' to replace the workers who left over safety concerns, a source involved in the movie told the Daily Mail. Deadline also cites an unnamed source who said a gun had gone off 'in a cabin' while someone was holding it, days prior to the shooting that killed Hutchins. 'A gun had two misfires in a closed cabin. They just fired loud pops – a person was just holding it in their hands and it went off,' they said, apparently referring to unintentional discharges.

 

[Leadeye]

Operating an SAA means cocking it first and then shooting it The 1877 and 1878 DA revolvers would have been around in the 1880s, but less common.

 

[TheGrumpyGuy]

'I wasn't sure if I was ready': Doubts of 24-year-old head armorer

Filming for Rust, a Western set in 1880's Kansas which stars Alec Baldwin, was only the second time Gutierrez-Reed had lead a production's firearms department.

www.dailymail.co.uk

The person in charge of prop gun safety. Presented without comment.

Like my mother used to say "Always judge a book by it's cover"

 

[BugI02]

But I bet Alec didn’t have any trouble getting his paychecks.

Yeah, he was probably willing to pay for his own room to be in Santa Fe

 

[Jaybird1980]

A lot to cover here. There are more unknowns than knowns, that's for sure.

Taking a run at the knowns:

The Venn Diagram of INGO members and Alec Baldwin fan club members is two circles. Nothing wrong with that, just pointing it out. Our middle name is "Gun" and last name is "Owners" after all.

A very young and talented Cinematographer is dead, another crew member seriously wounded.

Multiple sources cite crew treatment and safety concerns. The lack of sleep noted by several caught my attention.

There is a huge difference between a "prop gun" and a "gun used as a prop".

Unknowns:

How did the live round get on the set?

Who loaded the live round into the firearm?

Why was a live round loaded into a firearm on a movie set?

What specific safety protocols were violated (for motion picture producation, not the 4 rules which were obviously violated)?

What were the specific sequence of events prior to the live round being fired?

Words such as "accident", "negligence", "culpability", "criminal behavior", "civil liability" will be applied, but to whom?

I would like to add to the list of Unknowns.

Who is responsible for sending off the competent crew that voiced concerns and tried to take action, and replaced them with a different crew.

Surely they deserve some responsibility in this if they ignored the concerns of safety.

 

[BugI02]

I read it. My hypothesis still stands. Disgruntled worker loads a real cartridge. Mayhem ensues.

Hypothetical

 

[crispy]

'I wasn't sure if I was ready': Doubts of 24-year-old head armorer

Filming for Rust, a Western set in 1880's Kansas which stars Alec Baldwin, was only the second time Gutierrez-Reed had lead a production's firearms department.

www.dailymail.co.uk

The person in charge of prop gun safety. Presented without comment.

I'll comment. Diversity hire to comply with new Hollywood rules.

Results in death.

Way to go Hollywood.

 

[JCSR]

Deputies responding to the 911 call learned the gun had been handed to Gutierrez, the armorer, following the shooting. According to the affidavit, Gutierrez had taken the spent casing out of the gun.

Deputies secured the weapon, the rolling cart, a Western-style belt and additional prop ammunition, the affidavit says.

According to the search warrant affidavit, Dave Halls, the assistant director who handed the gun to Baldwin, told a detective he was not aware the weapon was loaded. The cart of prop guns had been prepared by Hannah Gutierrez, an armorer, who handles weapons for movie sets, the affidavit says. Neither Halls nor Gutierrez returned calls seeking comment on the shooting.

Affidavit offers new details on Baldwin shooting that killed cinematographer

Baldwin in a Twitter post Friday morning expressed deep regret about the incident, noting he is cooperating with law enforcement on the investigation "to address how this tragedy occurred."

www.santafenewmexican.com

 

[crispy]

I would like to add to the list of Unknowns.

Who is responsible for sending of the competent crew that voiced concerns and tried to take action, and replaced them with a different crew.

Surely they deserve some responsibility in this if they ignored the concerns of safety.

That would be the Producer...

 

[wcd]

So I have been around firearms for a while now do my best to abide by the 4 rules. So am I qualified to be an Armored?

what are the qualifications and if non Union workers were brought in why is the Union commenting?

 

[Jaybird1980]

That would be the Producer...

I see at least 6 people listed as "Producer".