Alec Baldwin - guns

It seems that the aim of of those in charge is to get a film shot as fast as possible for financial reasons. Their egos get in the way of health and safety issues and corners are cut. There are many disturbing accounts of stunt people in particular being put in danger by directors’ decisions and last minute changes of mind.
A dreadful but apparently avoidable tragedy.

it really does seem much more awful than an accident

It's just been on the news and it was stated that he had been handed a loaded gun.

Dear God, this is just terrible. A life lost and so many people and their families utterly devastated all because of a mistake. One single mistake and everything is changed forever.

It's just been on the news and it was stated that he had been handed a loaded gun.

JaneJudge

It does seem to be a H&S failure. It is well known that 'fakes' can kill and anyone who has with or within the military and testing will know very well about it!

missed out the word 'worked' with or within the military/forces

Poor Helyana though and her family

It does seem to be a H&S failure. It is well known that 'fakes' can kill and anyone who has with or within the military and testing will know very well about it!

We know nothing. Therefore speculation is completely unreasonable.

He was firing towards the camera. That’s a pretty typical camera angle? The question is more about why there were people standing where they were or without safety screens etc

Live ammunition should certainly not have been used, although it sounds very much as if that's what happened. A blank looks quite different from a live round and both the ammunition and the gun itself should have been thoroughly checked before it was loaded. As far as I know live ammunition isn't allowed on film sets anyway but the gun should automatically have been checked to make sure nothing was lodged in the barrel.

Still a lot to come out though. Why was he firing when there were obviously people in front of him?

Very hard to understand why live ammunition was used.

But for me it also highlights the number of films featuring guns. Why I wonder?

Reading the news today, I think there is more to this story. The unionised crew had walked out over poor working conditions, a few hours before, and the film company had brought in some non-unionised workers at short notice. I understand that live bullets are banned from all film sets to avoid inadvertent use. Also that if anyone is pointing a prop gun directly at a camera then there should have been lots of safeguards, including a perspex screen between gun and camera. It would appear none of this was in place. I think there is more to come out.

There's no "obviously" about anything.

None of us were there, none of us know what happened. Baldwin is clearly devastated by the whole thing, as are the cinematographer's family and the rest of the crew.

Have some respect.

Well maybe he had to point at the camera Altzarin but he obviously missed
It s a dreadful tragedy and if it was an accident he ll live with that for ever and a husband children parents have lost their loved one
Has it said if the film director is badly injured or only slight I would presume if it had gone through one person it would not be travelling so fast to badly injure the other but what do I know

I still blame entirely the use of real guns on a set blanks or not

Sorry Deedaa, just seen your comment regarding the crew.

Interesting read on BBC news about how disgruntled the filming crew were before filming that day. Many had walked out because of the working conditions.

Perhaps the cinematographer was filming at that time and the scene required AB to aim at the camera, i.e. as if at the audience.

My main question would be why was a photographer shot ? why was the gun aimed at her?
I could have understood better if the gun was trained on an actor who was in the plot to be shot! but why would a gun be discharged at a person with nothing to do with the acting in the scene???

I am very anti gun and cannot bear the American way of seeming so blasé about these dreadful things I know everyone seems to own them ‘for their own safety’ which, I believe, makes them far less safe

Good grief.....

Just seems to add to the trigger happy American way of life to me. Known for their clumsiness in war, here we go again…

Apparently the projectile passed through the photographer and hit the director.

It is being said that some of the crew walked off set a few days ago because of issues with the guns and they were replaced with non union staff.

DH used to lend his guns to local Drama groups (in the days when we were allowed to have them) I think he had it specified on his firearms certificate. They were always loaded with blanks, always carefully checked before use and the actors were always well prepared before they used them.

There seem to be a lot of unanswered questions at the moment.

a lot of questions need answering.
They certainly do.

He must be feeling dreadful but it needs to be investigated thoroughly.
Everything needs to be taken into consideration and being a star should not cloud the issues.

Yes, I tried to post a downloaded photo today - no luck, sodapop.

Posting seems to be a problem most days now Callistemon they don't appear able to resolve the problem.
It does seem strange that a real loaded gun was in use. So far it seems like a tragic accident but a lot of questions need answering.

So it's OK to speculate that he lost his temper and intentionally killed someone?

Clue: no its not. Hope I don't get any of you lot on the jury if I'm ever on trial.

Alegrias1

I don't think its right that people are speculating that he has anger issues or that he deliberately pointed the prop gun at someone.

His anger issues are not speculation. They are well-documented.

A woman is dead and a man with anger issues was allowed to handle a weapon capable of killing someone on a film set.
Fact.