The death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by Alec Baldwin is still one of the top news stories in our nation with many people wondering if this could have been entirely avoided, and to be quite honest with everyone, it really could have.
The assistant director had just assured Baldwin that the gun was “cold”, meaning it had no live rounds when the shooting occurred. Yes, Alec Baldwin is an extreme anti-gun nut, and his actions on social media are not helping him win any fans to his side.
For example, his posts over the years have bordered on the line of sociopathic in my opinion towards accidental shootings.
“You hook your friends with that line? Shoot em in the face? Cheney style?” Baldwin said in a 2015 comment on Twitter alluding to former Vice President Dick Cheney’s unfortunate 2006 hunting accident.
This is Alec Baldwin,” Errol Webber, a fellow Hollywood insider, tweeted with some of the actor’s worst moments, including that line that didn’t age well.
As mentioned before, it could have been avoided by not just Alec Baldwin if he would have followed gun safety protocols but even with the armorer on set.
Here is more from Western Journal:
During the making of “The Old Way” with Nicolas Cage earlier this year, Gutierrez-Reed drew the ire of the cast and crew with a cavalier attitude toward safety that some said “put the cast and crew in several unnecessary and dangerous situations,” according to The Wrap.
She brought weapons and live rounds onto the set without warning and broke a cardinal safety rule by allowing firearms to be pointed at people, the report said.
Gutierrez-Reed also carried handguns under her arms, sometimes situated so they would be pointed directly at anyone behind her, and she carelessly palmed rifles that were scene-ready.
She also accidentally fired a blank while trying to test whether horses used for production would be spooked by the sound, an incident that led one of the film’s stars to storm off the set, according to The Wrap.
Whatever the eventual conclusion, the death of Hutchins at the hands of an actor is a good reminder that guns must be treated as if they’re loaded and never pointed at anything the person holding the weapon isn’t willing to destroy.
And those lessons are, unfortunately, too often learned the hard way.
