WTf? How does this ever happen with a “prop”?

Shane

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Just will never add up to me? Someone getting shot with a prop gun onset of a movie filming will always be suspicious to me!
 

Chris_Sanders

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Brandon Lee...

Unfortunately sometimes the danger in cinema is very real
 

Devilmaycare

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Just will never add up to me? Someone getting shot with a prop gun onset of a movie filming will always be suspicious to me!

I always thought Brandon Lee's seemed suspicious and there might be more to it.

Jon-Erik Hexum's seemed legit though and was mainly do to him not knowing guns well enough. As a little kid I loved the show Voyagers! that he was in. He died from self inflicted gun shot to his head screwing around playing russian roulette with a prop gun between scenes. He thought he was safe with the revolver only having one blank in it. He didn't know that the wadding used to seal the gun powered in a blank gets ejected when fired. It along with the gasses from the the shot killed him.
 

Chaplin

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I always thought Brandon Lee's seemed suspicious and there might be more to it.

Jon-Erik Hexum's seemed legit though and was mainly do to him not knowing guns well enough. As a little kid I loved the show Voyagers! that he was in. He died from self inflicted gun shot to his head screwing around playing russian roulette with a prop gun between scenes. He thought he was safe with the revolver only having one blank in it. He didn't know that the wadding used to seal the gun powered in a blank gets ejected when fired. It along with the gasses from the the shot killed him.
There is nothing more to Brandon Lee's death. Blanks do have residual particles. In Lee's situation, a prop guy was cleaning the prop guns and didn't fully clean the gun the Michael Massey used and there was a fragment of a blank in the barrel. The gun went off and the fragment struck Lee in the chest and was unfortunately in the worst possible area. Michael Massey spent years riddled with guilt even though it was just a tragic accident. There was nothing suspicious.

Now, i don't know if there is something suspicious here, but I'd say the odds are that there isn't.
 

Rivercard

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How in the world could this happen on a movie set?

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Actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun Thursday that killed one crew member and injured another on the set of the movie “Rust” in New Mexico, Santa Fe County sheriff's office said.

The film's director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, 42, was killed, and director Joel Souza, 48, was injured when Baldwin, 63, discharged the stage firearm, the sheriff's office said in a statement Thursday evening. Souza was taken to the hospital by ambulance, officials said.

"There was an accident today on the New Mexico set of 'Rust involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks," a spokesperson for Baldwin said in a statement. "Production has been halted for the time being. The safety of our cast and crew remains our top priority."

Exactly how the incident unfolded Thursday was not clear. Hollywood weapons expert Larry Zanoff said that when firearms are used as props in the television and movie industry only blanks — cartridges that do not hold bullets — are allowed on set.

Even so, there is a minimum safety distance of 20 feet in front of the muzzle because even with a blank, smoke and burning embers can get propelled out of the gun, he said.
“There should be nothing in front of it when filming is occurring with firearms,” Zanoff said.

The weapons should also be inspected before and after each scene, and there should be a safety briefing as part of the protocol, he added.
 

Mainstreet

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The linked CNN article explains how these type of accidents can happen although it doesn't explain how this one happened.


 
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Shane

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Ok Explain this? It wasn't a mishap involving a Blank. It was an actual live round?
 

Mainstreet

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In these days of technology there must be a safer way to do it.
 

Covert Rain

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There is simply no reason to use real guns as props any longer. It's stupid. Hollywood has an obsession with guns that mirrors the country. Enough is enough.
 

dscher

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The fact no one in the media is even talking about why the gun was being pointed at her in the first place is suspicious enough IMO..
 

Covert Rain

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The fact no one in the media is even talking about why the gun was being pointed at her in the first place is suspicious enough IMO..
It wasn't pointed at her from what I am hearing. He was practicing drawing the gun per the director who was also wounded.
 

Devilmaycare

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It wasn't pointed at her from what I am hearing. He was practicing drawing the gun per the director who was also wounded.
How was it not pointed at her? She got shot. He might not have been meaning to point it at her but he was. It starting to sound like negligence on Baldwin's part. The number 1 rule is to always assume you gun is loaded and live. He obviously didn't check the weapon's state when he started practicing. Then he was practicing his quick draw with people in the area in front of him. Another big no-no when handing a gun. This incident most likely never happens if he was following proper weapons handling.
 

Covert Rain

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How was it not pointed at her? She got shot. He might not have been meaning to point it at her but he was. It starting to sound like negligence on Baldwin's part. The number 1 rule is to always assume you gun is loaded and live. He obviously didn't check the weapon's state when he started practicing. Then he was practicing his quick draw with people in the area in front of him. Another big no-no when handing a gun. This incident most likely never happens if he was following proper weapons handling.
You don't have to point a gun at someone to get them shot. If he was practicing his draw as the director stated all she had to be is in the line of fire. I never said that Baldwin shouldn't have taken more precaution. Most actors can't tell the difference between a blank, live round etc. However, they also said the assistant director gave him the all clear calling the gun "cold" prior to him practicing. There was lots of negligence to go around but let's not manipulate the narrative here. When someone says he POINTED the gun at her that paints a completely different picture. That insinuates he took aim and pulled the trigger intentionally at her which doesn't appear to be the case by all those present. As someone who has been around guns my entire life I can tell you there is a huge difference between POINTING a gun at someone and someone being in the line of fire getting hurt.

The bigger issue here is having live firearms on sets at all nowadays. There simply isn't a reason to allow live firearms on set any longer. None.
 
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MigratingOsprey

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The bigger issue here is having live firearms on sets at all nowadays. There simply isn't a reason to allow live firearms on set any longer. None.

This is the part that is confusing to me.

It seems like this should already be in place. With the amount of movies that have firearms in scenes, with as much money available for production, how is there not standard options of realistic weapon systems where there are no rounds or projectile material?
 

Ouchie-Z-Clown

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You don't have to point a gun at someone to get them shot. If he was practicing his draw as the director stated all she had to be is in the line of fire. I never said that Baldwin shouldn't have taken more precaution. Most actors can't tell the difference between a blank, live round etc. However, they also said the assistant director gave him the all clear calling the gun "cold" prior to him practicing. There was lots of negligence to go around but let's not manipulate the narrative here. When someone says he POINTED the gun at her that paints a completely different picture. That insinuates he took aim and pulled the trigger intentionally at her which doesn't appear to be the case by all those present. As someone who has been around guns my entire life I can tell you there is a huge difference between POINTING a gun at someone and someone being in the line of fire getting hurt.

The bigger issue here is having live firearms on sets at all nowadays. There simply isn't a reason to allow live firearms on set any longer. None.
This is such a good point. With sound effects why have anything but an inoperable replica on set?
 

Cheesebeef

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More and more is coming about how bad the prop master/responsible AD have been throughout their careers. This sounds like production went super cheap and the DP died for it. Just super sad.

You’ll prob here some BS by previous defenders of real guns on set for the “authenticity” the guns bring to a scene, but it’s just that. Authenticity isn’t worth someone’s damn life.
 

Rivercard

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The fact no one in the media is even talking about why the gun was being pointed at her in the first place is suspicious enough IMO..

Reports are that they were rehearsing a scene, which I assume included the gun being pointed. From pictures on set prior to the incident, the woman who was killed was standing very close to Baldwin.
 

Brian in Mesa

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Wasn't pointing the gun at her? Unless she was killed by a ricocheting bullet he DID point the gun at her.

It's coming out, like the last post, that they were rehearsing a scene in which he was sitting in a pew and firing the gun in the direction of the camera. Which explains how the cinematographer would end up being the one killed. She was behind the camera.

Some experts/authorities are saying Baldwin could still be found guilty of negligent homicide. He can say that someone else handed him the gun / handled it before he got it, but in the end, he is responsible for what happens with it once it is in his possession. Did he check it to make sure it wasn't loaded, etc? Clearly not.
 

Luciano

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Several crew members took prop guns from the movie, including the one that killed Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza, and drove away from the "Rust" set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico to shoot beer cans with live ammunition, according to sources cited by The Wrap and TMZ.

Unbelievable if true.
 

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