John Galt

I’m not trying to go back through all the news coverage, but in his interview didn’t he admit to cocking the hammer as part of the demonstration?

GoldenJCJ

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed of actors over all the years I’ve watched movies it’s that they have trigger discipline for shit. I bet the camera that was running at the time shows his finger on the trigger guard and on the trigger. It doesn’t take much at all to pull the trigger, even without realizing it.

Josh-da-man

Why is everyone still obsessing over whether or not Baldwin pulled the trigger?

The bottom line is that there never should have been a live round in the gun in the first place. That's the only issue. Not who was holding the gun when it went off. Doesn't matter if it was Baldwin or a PA. It's neither their job nor their responsibility to insure the weapons are safe. Nor should it be.

Michael Massey shot and killed Brandon Lee on the set of The Crow. Nobody was blaming him when he was a given an unsafe gun to point and discharge at an actor.

Josh-da-man

I don't know if that comes down to the actors not knowing trigger discipline, or if it's just considered more dramatic for the actor to have his finger on the trigger at all times while holding the gun.

And, on top of that, for people who aren't trained in firearms, seeing someone with their finger on the frame instead of the trigger probably looks strange.

rw2516

Supposedly this test was conducted by the defense team of the other defendants. It's an attempt to create reasonable doubt and shift blame from their clients to Baldwin. I doubt prosecutors will refile against Baldwin based on this test.

TGM

Baldwin is a chode but he's not to blame here. Unless he had a hand in hiring the inept propmaster.

Noonan

But Michael Massey wasn't famous for mocking a former president on SNL which enraged a large group of the population. Clearly a completely different situation.

d2cheer

Naw Alec is more famous for calling his daughter a greedy little pig long before social media became what it is. I am sure she loved what happened after.

Draven

I still come back to "was Jesse Ventura supposed to go through every single round for his minigun in 'Predator' or is this specifically why we have armorers on movie sets?"

DJariya

Just when you thought this case was over.

X - Formerly Twitter

GoldenJCJ

So it sounds like they looked at the gun again and figured it couldn’t have fired without him pulling the trigger.

Of course they’re looking past a couple issues that aren’t on a typical shooting. 1. The gun shouldn’t have been loaded and it was the expectation that it was not loaded. 2. Actors are required to pull the trigger many times while filming gun scenes, 3. There are often people directly in front of the gun on film sets. Many times specifically to get a front facing shot on camera.

There is no way any of these charges hold up and if they’re dropped again, those special prosecutors on NM are going to look like complete buffoons.

whotony

Unless he took the gun and knowing it was live, said I’m shooting this at you and it might kill you, I don’t see how or why they want to charge him.

Noonan

Social pressure to settle rather than fight back. All they want is his money.

whotony

That’s a good point

Decker

He already settled with the family, didn't he?

Kurt D

It's just a microcosm of our current reality: doomed to repeat the same stupid things over and over again on an accelerating schedule until we implode.

TheBang

This is a criminal indictment, not a civil lawsuit. Like Decker said, the production company already came to a civil settlement with the family.

Count Dooku

How much you wanna bet that someone involved in the prosecution is a Republican running for office in 2024? Going after Big Lib Baldwin looks good to GOP idiots.

rexinnih

That explanation, unfortunately, sounds the most plausible.

Troy Stiffler

I would hope this is a formality for insurance claim implications, or something to that extent. Does someone who is found at-fault a car accident get the same treatment? After the civil trial, is there a criminal trial to decide who's insurance company pays who?

Aside from the on-set death, has anyone considered how this was probably a non-special film that would have barely been a blip for us movie nerds? Who's to say this wouldn't be shelved for a few years and eventually sold to Netflix as "content", or end up on The Hallmark Channel?

Runaway

In my mind in American law anything is possible, but it wouldn't be logical, since insurance claims are civil and not criminal. It's probably political, since DAs get elected, which is in of itself illogical, since there is no seperation of powers.

B5Erik

The criminal charges have absolutely NOTHING to do with any civil case or insurance issues. This is simply a MASSIVE overreach by the local District Attorney.

Baldwin did nothing criminal here. He didn't know there were live rounds in the gun. He couldn't know. They had people on staff whose job it was to make sure that the gun DIDN'T have live rounds in it and was totally safe.

Now, as he was one of the producers on the movie, he does carry come CIVIL liability for the actions of the person who he did hire to handle the guns. He put that person in charge, and as such carries the responsibility for that person's actions.

But that doesn't make him criminally responsible for something he was not directly responsible for. This is likely political due to his constant making fun of Donald Trump.

PerryD

Decker

Yeah both parties can look to score political points. I still think it's a terrible miscarriage of justice to file manslaughter charges on an actor for using a prop gun, that he was told by his gun wrangler was unloaded, as a prop gun, in the process of doing his job. It's insane to me.
This is a workplace accident, plain and simple. If you need to charge anyone, charge the person who was criminally negligent here - the gun wrangler.

B5Erik

Exactly. If charges were to be filled they should have been charged against the person responsible for making sure the gun was safe, and that wasn't Alec Baldwin.