News media are reporting that actor Alec Baldwin yesterday fired a 'prop gun' on the set of the movie 'Rust' (now filming) killing a crew member and injuring another. Reporters are calling this 'an accidental shooting'.
Let's be clear about one thing — if we are clear about nothing else: there is no such thing as 'an accidental shooting'. There are 'intentional shootings' and there are 'negligent shootings'. There are no other categories into which to place any shooting.
What makes this ironic is that Alec Baldwin is rabidly anti-gun. He is said to be deeply distressed over the so-called 'accident'. Unfortunately, this is a perfect example of the principle that those who are anti-gun rarely-to-never know anything at all about guns. What a shame, then, that with but a very little serious investigation on Baldwin's part, he might have positioned himself to avoid killing his co-worker, but the anti-gun crowd are ignorant and they like it that way. They don't want to know anything about guns. Guns are yukky. Who needs to know anything beyond that?
BANG! You're dead.
Alec Baldwin should be deeply distressed that his intentional ignorance has now resulted in a negligent homicide.
Preliminary investigation suggests that something, perhaps a bullet from a prior use, was still lodged in the barrel and when a blank cartridge was fired from the gun, it provided enough pressure to dislodge the (old) bullet. As with so many other such incidents, it wasn't just a single error that caused tragedy; it was several points of failure, any one of which, with but a little care, would have prevented a needless death.
There are four 'laws' of gun safety — often attributed to Col. Jeff Cooper — that, if followed religiously, will completely eliminate death-due-to-negligence:
- Treat every gun as if it is loaded.
- Never point a gun at anything you aren't ready to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until you have decided to shoot.
- Know what is behind your target, because you will miss.
These all seem, on brief reflection, to be so intuitive that no one should have to be taught them, yet multiple failures yesterday took another innocent life. Some crew member picked up that gun to give it to Baldwin, but they didn't check to see if the action was clear, as you would for any gun you suspected was loaded. Alec Baldwin didn't check, either. Baldwin then pointed the gun in an unsafe direction, put his finger on the trigger, and fired.
This wasn't 'an accident'. This was a crime.
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There was certainly either negligence or intent involved, but it was almost certainly neither negligence nor intent on Baldwin's part. He seems to have been an actor who was handed a supposed prop to do a job with and did that job. If he'd been playing a missile silo crewman, he wouldn't have reasonably expected turning the key and pressing the button to launch an actual ICBM, either.
ReplyDeleteLeft unanswered is why Baldwin pointed the gun at the camera and pulled the trigger. That's the only way the cinematographer could get shot. Yup, this was negligent homicide.
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