On Thursday, October 21st, Alec Baldwin reportedly fired a handgun accidentally while on the movie set. A projectile from the gun struck and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. Baldwin has been an actor for decades and was producing the movie ‘Rust’, which was the setting for this Hollywood film tragedy.
Right after hearing the news, I began to have some interesting thoughts about this terribly sad and avoidable incident. As a very passionate firearms rights activist and shooter, I have been practicing and teaching the basic rules of gun safety since 2018. Anyone who ever comes near any firearm should know these rules as well as they know their own name:
- Always treat ALL firearms like they are loaded
- NEVER touch the trigger until you are ready to fire
- NEVER point any gun at anything you do not wish to kill
- ALWAYS know your target, what’s beyond it, and what’s around it
Right away, I placed roughly 90-100% of the blame for this homicide on Alec Baldwin, because he pulled the trigger and killed a person. Telling a judge that you thought the gun was unloaded or that you didn’t mean to pull the trigger is not a serious defense.
There were reports of the film crew being very upset at the producer (Baldwin) and contemplating walking off the set in protest. Could this be a potential motive for the killing if it weren’t truly an accident?
Why was there a real firearm on a movie set when Hollywood could easily get a realistic fake gun and use special effects to make the whole scene appear more realistic than the real world?
Who was responsible for loading the gun? I would have to assume that there was no ammunition anywhere on the set because that would be asking for trouble. Did somebody load the gun nefariously?
Alec Baldwin is famous for his bold leftist anti-gun rhetoric, which makes the tragedy ironic. Perhaps if he would spend more time actually training with real firearms and less time campaigning for gun control, he would not have made this terrible blunder.
Who was the armorer? This person had one job – to make sure the guns were safe – and she failed miserably.
I have heard some reports that the gun was a revolver (which would make sense for this old western movie). In general, firing a revolver requires a very long and heavy trigger pull or the cocking of the hammer. This means that truly accidental discharges are extremely rare with revolvers. That said, I believe that it was fairly likely that Baldwin pulled the hammer back on the loaded revolver and released it before it was locked in the cocked position. Those who are unfamiliar with firearms basics may not know that this could cause the firing pin to strike the primer hard enough to ignite it.
I have heard reports that there were two accidental discharges of guns prior to this incident. If this is true, I’d be okay charging every person involved in the movie with manslaughter or accessory charges. This is beyond reckless. Allowing 3 negligent discharges is insanity.
If you’re into conspiracy theories… “Baldwin shot and killed Halyna Hutchins, whose husband Matthew Hutchins just happens to be an attorney for DC powerhouse law firm Latham and Watkins – a law firm that represented the Clinton campaign and the Clinton foundation in multiple litigations. Coincidence?” was posted to Reddit, along with sources. As far as I can tell, the story checks out. Latham & Watkins also represents Michael Sussman, who was recently indicted by John Durham, according to USAsupreme.com
If 60+ people associated with the Clintons hadn’t suffered tragically early deaths by freak accidents, maybe I would brush this theory to the side.
UPDATE: In April 2023, the special prosecutors dismissed the charges against Baldwin. What a lucky guy!
District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies is a hardcore Democrat, just like Baldwin. The prosecutor ensured that Baldwin escaped without any punishment by producing a series of egregious ‘errors’. First, she was going to prosecute the case. She then appointed a sitting legislator to be the special prosecutor for the case. She fired him after Baldwin’s lawyers pointed out that a legislator also acting as a prosecutor was extremely inappropriate. She then appointed two random private lawyers to be the special prosecutors. The new lawyers embarrassed themselves by charging Baldwin with a firearm enhancement law that didn’t exist in 2021 when the crime actually occurred. After many such errors, they figured they had no choice but to drop all charges.
UPDATE: On January 19th, 2024, prosecutors announced that a grand jury again indicted Baldwin for involuntary manslaughter.
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