Volpone
Zombie Hunter
..."That's 'Manslaughter,' Alec. And it's 'Alex,' Alec."
Just read an editorial about how Alec Baldwin shouldn't be tried for manslaughter for pointing a real, functioning firearm at someone and pulling the trigger, relying on someone telling him the weapon was safe. No. For a number of reasons.
If you make a living with firearms, you should know how to handle them safely and you should treat every weapon as if it is loaded. I will allow that I don't know the details of whether he needed to pull the trigger on the pistol during the rehearsal. And if you gave me an expert witness that said to get the shot right he absolutely had to pull the trigger while the pistol was pointed at the cinematographer, that would count for something. As it stands, I would think you could point the gun a foot to the left or right and still have the shot work. But I'd be willing to hear evidence on this at his trial.
That said, there is no way in Hell that someone is going to hand me a firearm and say "don't worry, it's not loaded." In the Marines, when you hand someone a firearm you remove the magazine, open the chamber, physically look in the chamber and say "clear," show the chamber to the person you're handing it to and they will confirm "clear." Only then do you assume a gun isn't loaded. And even then, you don't cock it, point it at someone and pull the trigger. Again, acting is a different world and they want realism so they have "dummy" rounds that the gun is loaded with. That said, the proper way to receive a gun at the start of the scene is to have them show you the empty chambers and then show you that they are loading the gun with dummy rounds as you watch them load it. And even then, I'd be inclined to point it at the ground and pull the trigger on each "dummy" round to be safe.
All that said, if Baldwin were just some n00b schlub extra or something, they might get some leeway. But he's been in movies for a lifetime. He should know what he's doing. And he's important enough that he can say "no, we're going to take a little extra time to make sure we do this right."
Which brings me to the next point: Not only was he the actor, he was the producer. He had a say in hiring the armorer they hired. At the time of the shooting, I read an article where one experienced armorer had passed on the job because he said they were cutting too many corners to have a safe shoot. So they hired someone who'd never done the job before and pressured her to cut corners. They'd already had at least 2 other negligent discharges on the set and, IIRC, some of the crew had quit over unsafe working conditions. So all that comes back to that, from what I know about the incident, Alec Baldwin is guilty of manslaughter. Again, I'll admit there may be evidence I don't know and facts that I don't have, but on the surface he cut corners on safety to save money and then he pointed a real, working firearm at another human, cocked it, and pulled the trigger. That's negligent homicide in my book.
Just read an editorial about how Alec Baldwin shouldn't be tried for manslaughter for pointing a real, functioning firearm at someone and pulling the trigger, relying on someone telling him the weapon was safe. No. For a number of reasons.
If you make a living with firearms, you should know how to handle them safely and you should treat every weapon as if it is loaded. I will allow that I don't know the details of whether he needed to pull the trigger on the pistol during the rehearsal. And if you gave me an expert witness that said to get the shot right he absolutely had to pull the trigger while the pistol was pointed at the cinematographer, that would count for something. As it stands, I would think you could point the gun a foot to the left or right and still have the shot work. But I'd be willing to hear evidence on this at his trial.
That said, there is no way in Hell that someone is going to hand me a firearm and say "don't worry, it's not loaded." In the Marines, when you hand someone a firearm you remove the magazine, open the chamber, physically look in the chamber and say "clear," show the chamber to the person you're handing it to and they will confirm "clear." Only then do you assume a gun isn't loaded. And even then, you don't cock it, point it at someone and pull the trigger. Again, acting is a different world and they want realism so they have "dummy" rounds that the gun is loaded with. That said, the proper way to receive a gun at the start of the scene is to have them show you the empty chambers and then show you that they are loading the gun with dummy rounds as you watch them load it. And even then, I'd be inclined to point it at the ground and pull the trigger on each "dummy" round to be safe.
All that said, if Baldwin were just some n00b schlub extra or something, they might get some leeway. But he's been in movies for a lifetime. He should know what he's doing. And he's important enough that he can say "no, we're going to take a little extra time to make sure we do this right."
Which brings me to the next point: Not only was he the actor, he was the producer. He had a say in hiring the armorer they hired. At the time of the shooting, I read an article where one experienced armorer had passed on the job because he said they were cutting too many corners to have a safe shoot. So they hired someone who'd never done the job before and pressured her to cut corners. They'd already had at least 2 other negligent discharges on the set and, IIRC, some of the crew had quit over unsafe working conditions. So all that comes back to that, from what I know about the incident, Alec Baldwin is guilty of manslaughter. Again, I'll admit there may be evidence I don't know and facts that I don't have, but on the surface he cut corners on safety to save money and then he pointed a real, working firearm at another human, cocked it, and pulled the trigger. That's negligent homicide in my book.