There is some real spin happening with this story.
They’re also really going hard after the armorer, portraying her as nothing but a tarted-up gun bunny.
Some of the latest:
Alec Baldwin pointed gun at camera when the weapon fired during rehearsal
Alec Baldwin was practicing drawing gun when it discharged
Gun that went off in Alec Baldwin's hands and killed Halyna Hutchins 'was used for target practice'
Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ camera crew walked off the set in protest before the fatal shooting
Great thread here from an actor on what apparently went down on set
There were reports of an unsafe set and two previous “misfires” before the tragedy. The union armorer was reportedly replaced by a local one. Baldwin reportedly said that he was handed a “hot gun,” meaning a gun loaded with live rounds. Apparently the live rounds used for practice, so actors can feel what recoil is actually like etc., yet this is supposed to be separate from where weapons are loaded with blanks. The absence of this standard operating procedure is negligence. This doesn’t just fall to the armorer or prop master, but the the producer as well, Baldwin.
Bottom line — the person controlling where the barrel points, the person pulling the trigger, is ultimately responsible. This isn’t to say that others — the armorer, the assistant director, all the people whose hands through which the loaded weapon reportedly passed — don’t have any culpability, they do, but Baldwin is an industry vet on sets where firearms have been used prior, he’s the lead talent, the head producer, the top dog. The production was apparently haphazard and ran horribly, the failure to check in the presence of an armorer that your weapon is loaded with live rounds is also negligence.