Hollywood’s Loaded Gun

Alec Baldwin has had a very successful career in Hollywood and is widely considered by many a household name. According to SkyNews.com, “Baldwin rose to fame in CBS primetime soap opera Knots Landing. He made a name for himself on the big screen in films such as Beetlejuice and The Hunt for Red October, as well as his collaborations with directors Woody Allen in films such as Alice, Blue Jasmine, and Martin Scorsese in The Aviator and The Departed.” He has also won multiple Emmys and tried to revive his career in 2016 by acting for SNL as then-President Donald Trump. Unfortunately, Alec Baldwin’s career has started crashing down in recent weeks due to him shooting and killing 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in the chest on the set of a new movie named “Rust.” Not much is known about her career, but according to IMDb.com, “She is known for her work on Archenemy (2020), Darlin’ (2019) and Blindfire (2020)” it is safe to say her life and career in Hollywood was cut tragically short by a stunt gone wrong.

Prop guns have been used for theater and Television for many years. What many people don’t realize is prop guns used in movies are real firearms. The only difference about “Prop Guns” is the bullets. According to The Washington Post, they say “These prop guns with blanks are used on Hollywood sets because of the authenticity they add to filming. Firing a blank with a prop gun will produce three things that computer-generated imagery sometimes struggles to match: a recoil, a loud bang, and a muzzle flash, which is the light created when the propellant powder combusts.” Even when the gun isn’t loaded and still is shot can be very deadly, as the Washington Post also says. “Blanks can nonetheless still be dangerous: Even if there isn’t a bullet inside, anything near the end of the prop gun’s barrel can be a threat thanks to the muzzle flash and superheated gas expelled from it. As a result, significant, and even fatal, damage can be done when the trigger is pulled.”

Many safety protocols were disregarded on the set as well. According to a New York Post article they said Alec Baldwin broke many gun safety rules while handling the “Prop gun” as the article said, “They included failing to treat the weapon as if it were loaded, aiming at something he “was not willing to destroy” and putting his finger on the trigger. His finger never should have been anywhere near the trigger if there were people in front of that gun. Period,” he said, insisting it applied even if the script called for it. — but cops ‘not exactly sure where he is, and finally, Alec Baldwin broke rule number four when he failed to identify his target and what was behind it,” If Alec Baldwin had followed all of these rules, there wouldn’t have been someone who died that day. There is also a good reason for Alec Baldwin taking the heat right now considering he was the person who shot the gun, but he is also the producer of the film and is responsible for everything that happens on set including “Prop Guns.” Another article from the New York Post states that the person who oversaw the prop guns was still new in her Hollywood career as this was only the second film she had worked on for props. This is also not the first time someone had been killed by a “Prop gun” in March of 1993, Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, was killed by a “prop gun” on the film set of “The Crow.”