Alec Baldwin fatally shoots woman with prop gun on movie set

Hours before actor Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer on the New Mexico set of “Rust” with a prop gun, a half-dozen camera crew workers walked off the set to protest working conditions.

The camera operators and their assistants were frustrated by the conditions surrounding the low-budget film, including complaints of long hours and getting their paychecks, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment.

...

“Corners were being cut — and they brought in nonunion people so they could continue shooting,” the knowledgeable person said.

There were two misfires on the prop gun on Saturday and one the previous week, the person said, adding “there was a serious lack of safety meetings on this set.”

...

“As many of us have already heard, there was an accidental weapons discharge on a production titled Rust being filmed in New Mexico,” said the North Hollywood-based local. “A live single round was accidentally fired on set by the principal actor, hitting both the Director of Photography, Local 600 member Halyna Hutchins, and Director Joel Souza. Both were rushed to the hospital,” the email said.

A source close to union said Local 44 does not know what projectile was in the gun and clarified that “live” is an industry term that refers to a gun being loaded with some material such as a blank ready for filming.


https://www.latimes.com/entertainme.../alec-baldwin-rust-camera-crew-walked-off-set
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FloppyPoppy said:
As far as blanks, a gun that can fire a blank round is perfectly capable of firing a live round it would just be unable to cycle the next round without a BFA attached.
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^^^ this... and when you combine a live round with a BFA you make a total mess of a barrel... (which I saw some absolute dumb **** actually do in Scotland once - DS flapping, exercise stopped and everyone had to unpack all their kit and check for live rounds. Of course no one else has any live, it was just that one moron, no idea how he managed to both accidentally have one in his possession and accidentally whack it in a mag too among the blanks!)

I guess we'll have to wait and find out what has happened here - surely they can't have been using live rounds on a film set?

Presumably, they use different types of blanks etc.. or must have some sort of hidden BFA equivalent or adapted barrel if they want to not use CGI and do want to fire more than one round at a time!

I guess maybe if they do use more powerful blanks and/or there was something in the barrel then that could cause an accident. If for some reason there was a live round however then the people responsible for the firearms/ammunition (and quite possibly Baldwin too) have been incredibly negligent.

Edit - also reading the above, if he has accidentally (or rather negligently) discharged the weapon when it wasn't supposed to be fired then that's not exactly excusable either!
 
Terminal_Boy said:
That’s why you had that big yellow BFA clamped to the muzzle. It provides enough back pressure in the barrel for the weapon to cycle and prevents any debris being discharged.
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No, he wouldn't have, he mentioned cadets, their individual weapons are/were modified to remove the gas parts and attach a big cocking handle, ironically the lack of a BFA (to remove the ability to fire semi or fully automatic) probably made them a bit more dangerous.

You're likely not going to use BFAs in a move - tad obvious if there is some big yellow or red thing on the end of the barrell, so unless the barrels themselves are somehow modified then you've probably got a similar issue as with the cadet rifles - single shot, open barrel and all that stuff from the blank round just comes straight out... ergo you don't want to be close to it if pointed in your direction... even worse if they need to use more powerful blanks for effects or there is something in the barrel.
 
A real tweet by a Democrat nutjob

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Le Clandestin Brun said:
Ignoring the potential irony of the plot... how can you kill someone with a prop gun? I'm assuming a prop gun is fake and simply fires blanks or potentially something which makes the muzzle flash, but perhaps I'm wrong.

Anyone with more knowledge of film prop firearms care to enlighten me?

Also, how did he shoot the directors? I suppose if he's aiming towards camera it is understandable the aim would be towards them, but surely they wouldn't be that close to the discharge.

If the prop gun is legitimate, then would there be potential for related charges of accidental death due to negligence?
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Not read the thread but iirx there's true prop guns with constricted barrels they can only fire blanks without failing dangerously.

Then there's normal guns loaded with blanks. This was a real bullet put in a real gun instead of a blank it should have been very very obvious to anyone loading it (a blank loks like a crimped closed case) so my guess is going to be some people on set have been using th cowboy gun for fun and it's been returned with a round in jt before being filled woth blqnks
 
dowie said:
No, he wouldn't have, he mentioned cadets, their individual weapons are/were modified to remove the gas parts and attach a big cocking handle, ironically the lack of a BFA (to remove the ability to fire semi or fully automatic) probably made them a bit more dangerous.

You're likely not going to use BFAs in a move - tad obvious if there is some big yellow or red thing on the end of the barrell, so unless the barrels themselves are somehow modified then you've probably got a similar issue as with the cadet rifles - single shot, open barrel and all that stuff from the blank round just comes straight out... ergo you don't want to be close to it if pointed in your direction... even worse if they need to use more powerful blanks for effects or there is something in the barrel.
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This was the case originally with the cadetified sa80s (L98A1), but I think around 2010 they got replaced with L98A2's, which are gas operated and are fitted with BFAs when using blank rounds.
 
dowie said:
I guess we'll have to wait and find out what has happened here - surely they can't have been using live rounds on a film set?
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From what I've seen on YouTube i.e. some of the US firearms channels who are involved in movie shoots even on low budget stuff these days there is supposed to be hard isolation between weapons used for firing blanks and those used for firing live rounds and same for the ammunition on film production and a lot of accounting with every movement and use.

Live rounds do get used quite a bit - especially stuff like 50 cal rifles there is little substitute for the real thing.

Getting a bit into speculation but there are an increasing number of people who work in that industry and/or other actors so not just random people saying things weren't being done properly to procedure on the production of that movie.
 
GreatAuk said:
This was the case originally with the cadetified sa80s (L98A1), but I think around 2010 they got replaced with L98A2's, which are gas operated and are fitted with BFAs when using blank rounds.
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Well, the poster has been on here for a decade so I guess he was perhaps more likely a cadet in the 90s or 00s than in the 10s. Sensible for them to replace the rifles tbh..


Rroff said:
From what I've seen on YouTube i.e. some of the US firearms channels who are involved in movie shoots even on low budget stuff these days there is supposed to be hard isolation between weapons used for firing blanks and those used for firing live rounds and same for the ammunition on film production and a lot of accounting with every movement and use.

Live rounds do get used quite a bit - especially stuff like 50 cal rifles there is little substitute for the real thing.

Getting a bit into speculation but there are an increasing number of people who work in that industry and/or other actors so not just random people saying things weren't being done properly to procedure on the production of that movie.
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Yeah does sound rather ropey, kind of makes Baldwin doubly culpable potentially, both as an actor for negligently discharging the firearm (if that is indeed what happened) but also as an executive producer - ultimately if there were issues with the budget, safety etc.. then the buck stops with them too, they're the bosses/CEOs of the thing effectively.
 
dowie said:
Well, the poster has been on here for a decade so I guess he was perhaps more likely a cadet in the 90s or 00s than in the 10s. Sensible for them to replace the rifles tbh..
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And 'the poster' has already stated...

Malevolence said:
Early to mid 80s. We had .303 Enfields which were a right pain because the bolt mechanism didn't like to cycle the blank rounds.
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adam cool dude said:
Plenty of messed up stuff has happened during filming of TV shows and Films. Two kids and a man were decapitated by a helicopter crashing during filming of an 80's film called the twilight zone.
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I remember seeing a clip of that leaked online, think it was faces of death or whatever. Bad quality but you could make out what happened. If I remember rightly, the people filming got into trouble regarding child employment laws as well as killing three members of the cast..
 
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