If they can’t handle learning safety with a real gun, they don’t get no real gun, simple as. They aren’t toys. It doesn’t matter how widely known the operation of X specific gun is, if you’re holding that gun, you need to know how to operate that gun safely, he doesn’t need to know everything about everything, just the one he is operating. Anything less is just unsafe and could lead to things like camera people being shot in between takes.
And with camera magic usually you can point them off to the side a little and still make it look like it’s pointed at the other person, or for this shot (which was actually just him fucking around in between takes), they could have left the camera running, had the op walk away, and then had him walk up and shoot an empty camera seat which through the magic of editing could be cut down to the shot you need since film isn’t even film anymore (digital these days.) Or y’know just not use a real gun capable of firing live rounds.
They’re also lessons for Producer Alec Baldwin, who, whether he is just a stupid actor who can’t be expected to learn something which it sounds like took you a five minute youtube video to learn (you must be a genius if you can handle it but Alec Baldwin Producer cannot), or not, someone died because he was playing with guns, and people only excuse it because he’s famous. You wouldn’t say “well why would he be expected to know about guns, he’s a plumber not an armorer” if your plumber uncle was playing with guns and shot his friend, but Alec “Millionaire Producer” Baldwin is cool because “he’s too dumb to learn anything.”
Like it or not he is at least partially culpable, and he’s going to have to live with that for the rest of his life. He can make all the excuses he wants but deep down he has to know.
As I mentioned, I held a gun long ago handed to me by a marine doing a demo on a decommissioned carrier. He did not give me any kind of extensive training in the safety of the 92FS or any cautions about edge case safety concerns. I didn’t check the chamber, or know how to. In holding it horizontally within a metal ship, it’s not impossible that a misfire from the direction I held it could have ricocheted off walls and hurt someone. While I knew not to touch the trigger, he didn’t instruct me as such.
The Marine did, however, know that no live ammo was being brought onto the boat, and that he’d personally checked that the weapon was unloaded before handing it to me - just so I could see how much it weighed.
Was that tiny incident irresponsible on MY part? I would argue no. There are responsibilities carried by gun users and owners, and only some of those pass on depending on the environment the gun’s handler sets.
If they can’t handle learning safety with a real gun, they don’t get no real gun, simple as. They aren’t toys. It doesn’t matter how widely known the operation of X specific gun is, if you’re holding that gun, you need to know how to operate that gun safely, he doesn’t need to know everything about everything, just the one he is operating. Anything less is just unsafe and could lead to things like camera people being shot in between takes.
And with camera magic usually you can point them off to the side a little and still make it look like it’s pointed at the other person, or for this shot (which was actually just him fucking around in between takes), they could have left the camera running, had the op walk away, and then had him walk up and shoot an empty camera seat which through the magic of editing could be cut down to the shot you need since film isn’t even film anymore (digital these days.) Or y’know just not use a real gun capable of firing live rounds.
They’re also lessons for Producer Alec Baldwin, who, whether he is just a stupid actor who can’t be expected to learn something which it sounds like took you a five minute youtube video to learn (you must be a genius if you can handle it but Alec Baldwin Producer cannot), or not, someone died because he was playing with guns, and people only excuse it because he’s famous. You wouldn’t say “well why would he be expected to know about guns, he’s a plumber not an armorer” if your plumber uncle was playing with guns and shot his friend, but Alec “Millionaire Producer” Baldwin is cool because “he’s too dumb to learn anything.”
Like it or not he is at least partially culpable, and he’s going to have to live with that for the rest of his life. He can make all the excuses he wants but deep down he has to know.
Let me test this standpoint a bit.
As I mentioned, I held a gun long ago handed to me by a marine doing a demo on a decommissioned carrier. He did not give me any kind of extensive training in the safety of the 92FS or any cautions about edge case safety concerns. I didn’t check the chamber, or know how to. In holding it horizontally within a metal ship, it’s not impossible that a misfire from the direction I held it could have ricocheted off walls and hurt someone. While I knew not to touch the trigger, he didn’t instruct me as such.
The Marine did, however, know that no live ammo was being brought onto the boat, and that he’d personally checked that the weapon was unloaded before handing it to me - just so I could see how much it weighed.
Was that tiny incident irresponsible on MY part? I would argue no. There are responsibilities carried by gun users and owners, and only some of those pass on depending on the environment the gun’s handler sets.