Alec Baldwin denies pulling trigger in 'Rust' shooting

[localroger]

20. This is not the way it works on a movie set

And no, movie sets aren't "reality." Really.

The armorer and prop manager are responsible for making sure that anything put in the hands of an actor is prepped properly for their role. In this case it was just a test, and Baldwin was told that the gun was "clear," that is unloaded and safe, before it was handed to him. Actors are not expected to know firearms, and are in fact not ALLOWED to check firearms themselves; if an actor is gun-aware, they can get the armorer or prop master to SHOW them that the gun is clear before handing it to them. They are not allowed to break the mechanism themselves because that interrupts the chain of responsibility. In this case Alec Baldwin is the very last person who would be responsible for what happened. It may be a horrible chain of incompetence or it may be that he was set up, but the fact that the gun could fire at all when it was put in his hands is not his fault. That is the way it works on a movie set, and it's been working that way for over 100 years with very few incidents like this one to discredit the system.