• circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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      29 days ago

      Yes, that is the most likely outcome based on all available historical data.

      But, I will say the DA and local court system don’t seem to be playing along with making it easy.

      So, while money is a statistically significant predictor in these situations, it’s not providence.

      • applepie@kbin.social
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        29 days ago

        Good. They really should pin on the working conditions. These clowns over work and under staff and when something bad happensz it is always some nobody wage slave who is at fault.

        • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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          29 days ago

          I agree, but I will say that the armorer was exceptionally negligent. Like, seriously went above and beyond to be unsafe in her role and her handling of the weapons.

          But even though she does bear some responsibility, ultimately it was Baldwin’s fault. Not because he pulled the trigger, but because he was in charge of the conditions on set, was aware of all the safety concerns raised the crew, and he was responsible for keeping the completely unqualified armorer on the crew.

          • applepie@kbin.social
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            29 days ago

            Exactly.

            Armorer was deff criminally negligent but she already got her time. Daddy “owner” being able to delay this shit is just another example of two justice systems for the club and the poors.

          • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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            29 days ago

            Not because he pulled the trigger,

            I am not willing to make that concession. Firearms are too simple to operate, and their risks too well known to argue that the person handling them can have zero responsibility for their operation.

            If I pick up a knife on set, and I make no effort to verify its blade is dulled, or it’s retractable blade functional, I am responsible if I cut or stab someone with that knife.

            If I pick up a hammer on set and bash someone over the head with it, not bothering to check that it’s a rubber hammer, I’m responsible for the injuries and damage I cause.

            A gun is no different. If I haven’t verified that the gun is non-functional, I’m responsible for whatever comes out of the barrel. People have been killed by blanks, either fired at closer range than they are safe, or behind projectiles stuck in barrels.

            The industry safety standard is summarized in 4 redundant rules, intended to prevent the discharge, or, if that fails, to ensure that discharge does not cause injury or unacceptable damage. A handler violating any of these rules is negligent, but they have to violate all of them before someone gets hurt.

            Yes, the movie industry does, indeed, allow us to violate safety rules. Many industries do this with all sorts of dangerous operations.

            But, we can do this only when the safety measure provided by that rule is replaced with an equivalent protection. Baldwin broke all four rules, and did not replace any of them with an equivalent measure.

            • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              29 days ago

              Baldwin broke all four rules, and did not replace any of them with an equivalent measure.

              Baldwin didn’t, yes, because he hired an incompetent armorer. In normal circumstances the armorer is the person doing everything you just said needed to be done.

              A gun is no different. If I haven’t verified that the gun is non-functional, I’m responsible for whatever comes out of the barrel

              A gun is different, it requires ammunition. If a gun is to fire a blank then the gun must be functional, the ammunition simply is designed to not fire a round that’s meant to kill someone.

              To expect every handler of a firearm to be knowledgeable enough about guns to safely unload, confirm what ammunition is in use, and then proceed accordingly when they also have to act and deal with what comes with that is insane. That’s why there’s a person whose professional job it is to do all of that and then tell the actor what can and cannot be done with the weapon.

              Baldwin is guilty because he failed to employ a good armorer who could do their job. If it was a random actor not involved in the hiring process of the film then they’d be perfectly innocent in this situation, to think otherwise is straight up victim blaming.

              • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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                29 days ago

                Baldwin didn’t, yes, because he hired an incompetent armorer. In normal circumstances the armorer is the person doing everything you just said needed to be done.

                Properly handling a firearm is not a job that can be outsourced. The armorer is also criminally responsible, but primary responsibility always falls on the person handling the weapon.

                A gun is different, it requires ammunition.

                Rule #1: All guns are loaded until positively proven otherwise. The requirement of ammunition is presumed until proven otherwise.

                To expect every handler of a firearm to be knowledgeable enough about guns to safely unload, confirm what ammunition is in use, and then proceed accordingly when they also have to act and deal with what comes with that is insane. exactly the standard expected of every single person, handling every single weapon, every single time.

                FTFY. The standard of behavior when you do not positively know if a firearm is loaded or unloaded is Rule #1: All guns are loaded until positively proven otherwise.

                The industry standard is that if your mind wanders while an unloaded gun is in your hand, that “unloaded” gun is to be treated as if it grew a cartridge while you weren’t paying attention, and is to be treated as a loaded weapon until reverified.

                Baldwin is guilty because he failed to employ a good armorer who could do their job.

                No, Baldwin is civilly liable for that. He is guilty because he negligently discharged a firearm, resulting in the death of another person.

                Safe handling cannot be outsourced to a “professional”. The purpose of hiring an armorer is to add an additional layer of safety, not to replace the handling skills of the actor.

                If you want to make it so that the actor is not responsible for his actions, you hire a specifically trained individual who is capable of performing those actions. In the business, this person is known as a “stunt double”. You hire a stunt double to perform actions that the principal actor is not capable of performing. Baldwin’s decision to perform the actions himself makes him responsible for the consequences of his performance.

                If the actor (or double) performing those “stunts” is so inept that he kills someone in the process, he is criminally liable for his reckless behavior.

                to think otherwise is straight up victim blaming.

                Baldwin is not a victim. He is a perpetrator. That another person’s incompetence contributed to the death merely means there was an additional perpetrator. The armorer’s incompetence does not absolve Baldwin’s own incompetence.

                • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  29 days ago

                  Oh look, someone else with 0 clue what they’re talking about posting a wall of text when:

                  I have no business discussing this topic

                  Would have been much easier to write

              • skulblaka@startrek.website
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                29 days ago

                To expect every handler of a firearm to be knowledgeable enough about guns to safely unload, confirm what ammunition is in use, and then proceed accordingly when they also have to act and deal with what comes with that is insane.

                Fuck that, absolutely not, every single handler of any firearm is required to know how to safely unload and confirm that it is unloaded. Period. End of story. If you don’t know how to drop the mag and rack the slide then don’t fucking touch that thing. Guns aren’t toys, and they aren’t props. The armorer is there for guidance and for double checking but there should never, ever, for any reason other than a survival emergency, be a gun in the hand of someone who does not know how it functions. Not for actors, not for cops, not for civilians. It takes less than a minute to confirm an unloading and it takes 15 minutes to teach someone how who has never seen a firearm before. There is no excuse whatsoever (BIG EDIT: assuming a competent armorer, that can actually teach this) for an actor not knowing how to confirm their own gun is ready for scene, and the armorer should check it themselves immediately before or after, before the scene starts.

                • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  29 days ago

                  Holy shit that’s a lot of unformatted text to basically say:

                  I clearly have no fucking clue how the film industry works and my opinion is crap because of it

          • ultranaut@lemmy.world
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            29 days ago

            Was he actually in charge of conditions? Did he supervise the armorer or the AD who were responsible for handing him a loaded prop gun? I’ve never seen those claim proven anywhere, from what I I’ve seen he was an actor on the set and his producer title came primarily from his role in funding the production.

              • ultranaut@lemmy.world
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                29 days ago

                That doesn’t answer anything. Producer is a title that encompasses a lot of different things, what were his actual duties and responsibilities as a producer? That’s what actually matters here, that he has a producer title on the movie and helped pay the bills doesn’t mean he had any involvement in hiring or supervising the two people so far found legally culpable.

                • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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                  29 days ago

                  I thought the same, and it’s definitely a witch hunt from the right, HOWEVER I also did some lookups and it sounds like he was basically running this movie. Even the director was taking orders from him, and the lax safety standards are pretty much directly because he ordered them to ignore them. So the witch hunt is stupid, but he does deserve punishment for his negligence.

                • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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                  29 days ago

                  Just because he was the lead actor, producer, partner in the production company, and gave orders to the cast and crew, doesn’t mean he has any responsibility for what happens on set

            • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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              28 days ago

              The only “condition” that is relevant is the fact that he was handling the firearm at the time it was fired. Yes, he was fully and solely in charge of that condition.

              He failed to take any safety precautions whatsoever. He failed to abide by the layers of multiple precautions of normal gun use, let alone the heightened precautions necessary for film.

              Standard operating procedure when picking up or being handed a gun is to immediately check if it is loaded. He failed to do a proper check. He failed to do any check at all. Had he pointed the gun at the ground and pulled the trigger 6 times, it would have fired, but nobody would have gotten hurt.

              If someone blew through a red light in a school zone at 80mph, without bothering to check that there was no cross traffic, let alone that the roads had been closed, the fact that he had a cameraman in the passenger seat would not absolve him of any injuries he caused in the process. The way Baldwin used that revolver was far more reckless.

              Even if the armorer had deliberately tried to murder her by telling him the gun was safe when she knew it wasn’t, his actions would still rise to the level of criminal negligence.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    29 days ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    A judge in New Mexico denied Alec Baldwin’s bid to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter charge he faces in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the movie “Rust,” ruling on Friday that the case had been properly presented to a grand jury.

    Since the fatal shooting on Oct. 21, 2021, Mr. Baldwin has argued that he is not responsible for Ms. Hutchins’s death, maintaining that he had no reason to believe the gun had been loaded with a live round, which was banned on the set of “Rust,” a western.

    The prosecution responded in court papers that the testing was completed only after Mr. Baldwin claimed that he did not pull the trigger, to determine if his account of events was possible, and that the issue was not sufficient to warrant dismissing the case.

    They have also sought to capitalize on the conviction of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the movie’s armorer, who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in a jury trial this year and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

    Mr. Nikas quoted a prosecutor at Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s trial, Jason J. Lewis, saying that “it’s a hard and fast industry rule that live ammunition should be miles away from a film set at all times.”

    In response, the prosecution argued that Mr. Baldwin disregarded substantial risks on set that day, declining to participate in the armorer’s safety check and handling the gun in a way that the rehearsal did not call for.


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