For those of you that didn't know, on the movie set of Rust, in October of 2021. Alec Baldwin fatally shot and killed his cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins. The incident happened during the shooting of one of the scenes in an old church. In this scene, Alec was cornered by a couple of enemies and was to draw his gun to kill them. Alec and Halyna were rehearsing the drawing of Alec's pistol to make sure it would be in the shot. Halyna was telling him where to move the gun so that it was in the shot. Next, Alec was pulling the hammer of his movie prop revolver that was given to him by the movie's armorer to make sure that the pulling back of the hammer was in the camera shot. Once Halyna had him lined up and gave him approval for that gun angle, Alec released the hammer on his revolver. He witnessed Halyna drop and claims he had no idea what had happened at the time. He said he thought she had fainted or had a heart attack. That story does not add up when we take into account that another man on the set behind her had been clipped by the same bullet and was bleeding out of his shoulder. He also stated that the dummy rounds in the movie's guns had no recoil, and from my personal experience, a loaded round in a real revolver has a significant amount of recoil. This also does not add up considering Alec had been shooting dummy rounds prior to this scene. 

 

Now the question is, who gets charged and why? As of now, charges of involuntary manslaughter are being tried on Alec Baldwin and his armorer. The question of why there was a live round in a movie set gun being pointed at someone is also being brought up. It is also the responsibility of the armorer to KNOW that there are dummy rounds or NO rounds in the gun. The fact that there was a live round mixed in with dummy rounds on a movie set that involves pointing guns at people is outrageous and irresponsible on both Alec Baldwin AND his armorer. Personally, if I was handed a gun that was loaded by someone else and I was going to point it at a person, I would NOT assume that there were dummy rounds or no rounds at all in the gun. It only takes one shot to kill someone and mess up your whole life. Even though there is an opinion out there that says, "Well Alec obviously didn't try to kill Halyna", it is still involuntary manslaughter. Involuntary manslaughter as a charge is made because it is still ILLEGAL. If it was legal, then it wouldn't be a charge. There was a cameraman on the set that backed out days before the killing because of a "Lack of gun safety on the set". There was also a crewmember that stated that there had been a couple of accidental gun misfires on the set before this shooting in the first place. This brings up a few more concerns on this topic.

 

Personally, I think that Alec Baldwin and his two armorers should be prosecuted fairly for involuntary manslaughter. Just because it was an accident, doesn't mean it was legal.

 

Do you think that Alec and his armorers are guilty, or innocent of these charges?

How do you feel about there being live ammunition on the set?

What do you think about multiple crewmembers being concerned about gun safety on this set?

 

 

https://apnews.com/article/alec-baldwin-rust-movie-shooting-charges-decision-8c76eddb8a6418419078903d24ec3813

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/19/entertainment/rust-movie-shooting-alec-baldwin-charges-decision/index.html

You need to be a member of History 360 to add comments!

Join History 360

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies

  • I think that the person that dealt with it should be in charge because that's literally his job. I think they could be both guilty. If mulitple people were concerned of the safety then something should have been said. Them not being safe lead to a death.

  • I think that although Alec Baldwin is guilty its not all his fault, the armorers should be charges just as heavily as Alec because it is their job to make sure everything is safe and legal and they didn't. The gun should have been checked multiple times and the concern of the crewmembers should have been a sign early on. 

  • I disagree I think Alec Baldwin shouldn't be charged with anything, but I think the person that loaded the gun should be charged. I think the person in charge of the guns should have had live rounds on the set. I think it is weird how multiple crewmembers were that the set wasn't safe and then 2 people get shot is a little odd.

  • I think that it is the armorers fault. She claimed the guns were empty and there was nothing in them. I truly believe that before they even practiced with the guns, they should have double checked them to make sure they were completely empty. Now, if you watch Alec's interview, he does seem to be acting weird. Obviously, he could just be acting this was because he feels guilty and doesn't want to talk about it. But is he acting this way because he put ammo in the gun? 

    • You make a good point when you said he could be acting weird because he could have put ammo in the gun. I would think that someone would have seen him if he did and in his interview, he said that the armorers take the gun after every shot so it would have been very difficult to sneak a round in it.

  • I do think that Alec Baldwin is guilty. Just because he didn't know the gun was loaded, he was the one who shot the gun. However, I think that his armorers should be charged as well, since they are the ones who were supposed to be checking the gun.

    • That is a good point, I agree with when you said, "Just because he didn't know the gun was loaded, he was the one who shot the gun." Their job was to provide weapons and make sure the weapons are safe. 

  • I think that Alec Baldwin and his two armorers are in fact guilty. I think this because like you said “Just because it was an accident doesn’t mean it was legal.” Because of the lack of gun safety, someone was killed and that is not okay. I also would not be okay with there being live ammunition on a TV set. It is extremely dangerous and could kill more than just one person. I think that the crew members had every right to be concerned about the lack of gun safety on set. It could and did hurt someone.  For that to be a possibility and you just go along with it is just simply not okay.

    • I completely agree. The fact that there was live ammunition on the set and somehow made it into a prop gun is just simply unacceptable. He should be fairly tried along with his armorers. Negligence is unacceptable when dealing with lethal weapons.

  • Yes, Alec Baldwin is guilty of killing someone on the set of Rust. I don't think he should get charged as heavily as he has been.  He did not know that the gun was loaded with a live round.  I think that he should be charged with involuntary man-slaughter.  The equipment managers should also be charged.

This reply was deleted.
eXTReMe Tracker