About guns.......
 

Recently, Alec Baldwin accidently shot someone on the movie set and it killed her. I'm sure you have all heard.

Now he has had an interview where he states he never pulled the trigger on the gun.

As you know, my knowledge about guns is not great, but, even as uninformed as I am I can't believe a gun can shoot without pulling the trigger.

What am I missing here? Is there something about guns shooting without pulling the trigger that I don't understand or is Alec Baldwin just saying anything to avoid responsibility?

In truth the revolver in question in proper working condition needs the trigger pulled back to fire. Holding the trigger back then cocking the hammer back and releasing will fire the weapon. Think of the ""fanning"" of a six shooter seen in western movie gun fights.

The possibility of a defective weapon is also a reason. The catch on the hammer from safe, load cock to full being defective or a worn action allowing for the hammer to fall unexpectedly. A very very light pull to no locking of the hammer.

Also noted the firing pin sits exposed with the hammer down. If a live round is under the hammer it can fire the round!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LigAFOlhC8

Go to around 13 minutes....

Thanks, Oerets, that information was very helpful.

The gun in question was a single-action, six-shot revolver (.45 Long Colt).

The only way it could have fired would have been some kind of action on Alec Baldwin's part.

He could have held the trigger all the way back after pulling it once, and then worked the hammer to make it fire. Or he could have dropped the gun accidently, which can cause it to discharge.

The hammer can release on it own if defective......
Unlatch...

Firing pin will hit the primer on any drop, no safety on the old style.

Why a unloaded empty cylinder was always used when carried.


Know a shooter who dropped one, hammer hit ground and sent a round thru his knee............................

Everything you said was true.

I want to add, someone would have to pull the hammer back for it to release, a human action.

Barring supernatural intervention, of course, which doesn't make for a good legal defense these days.

My take.....

Lawyer speaking now for Alex right now.....doubt....!


I'm thinking he should be silent.

I can't believe he did that interview on tv! It doesn't take a legal expert to know that was the dumb thing to do. His words will come back to haunt him, likely in a court room.

Alex was pointing the gun at people. We know that from where the bullet went. Only question is how involved he was in making it shoot. The answer is certainly some, unless the gun was handed to him with the hammer cocked and then somehow went off unintentionally.

Proper gun safety would involve guns always being passed open so the recipient can inspect the load status, and if passed closed, you open it to check for yourself. But I understand that is not 'standard film industry practice.' :(

BTW, movie sets seem in many pics and videos I've seen to have non-existent trigger discipline. That is, unless you intend the gun to shoot, your finger should never be inside the trigger guard. Another basic safety rule that could prevent harm if followed. But actors are not trained in gun safety and are always seen handling guns on sets with their fingers on triggers, even when no filming is taking place.

If a film requires a finger to been seen on a trigger, all the more reason for the load status of the weapon to be constantly verified.

Food for thought:

The most popular bolt-action rifle of all time in the US, the Remington 700 (and the smaller Model 7), had a recall of ~7 million rifles manufactured over 8 years due to a defective trigger that would allow the gun to discharge without pulling the trigger.

While single-action revolvers and bolt action rifles have differing actions, both are held in a cocked position prior to discharge and both can have manufacturing defects. That said, I have no opinion on what actually happened in the Alec Baldwin case.

Key to gun safety is knowing and acting as if the weapon is loaded and can fire at any time.

A actor holding a weapon must be responsible and behave accordingly. If not, IIRC manslaughter is used when an accidental cause of another's death is determined.

Also worked with a guy who's son blew off a toe with a shotgun. was resting the end of the barrel on the top of his foot. Butt up on chest and started tapping his foot......forgetting a live round was in the chamber.....just enough to send the primer to pin.

I'm willing to bet a video camera was running that caught the whole thing, even though the crew was not filming at the time. They always analyze the movie scene from other points of view using less expensive video coverage.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/alec-bald...235702695.html

He's saying the hammer slipped as he pulled it back. That's entirely possible.

Gun safety has always been something from a very early age aware of.

With the very personal knowledge that a parent when fourteen was shot in the shoulder the bullet resting by his heart. By his older brother also an thought to be "unloaded revolver". Carried the projectile in the heart muscle the rest of his life.

The facts may well never be fully known or understood in this case. One fact is for sure a live round was in the pistol. The last person handling the gun may well say it was described as unloaded, still was their responsibility to check. A defective pistol if unloaded would not of killed anyone either.

Been around firearms for close to seventy years and quit going to the range for awhile due to the growing number of unsafe shooters. Quit going rock hunting during Deere and turkey season. For the same reasons, too many hunters firing unsafely.

Only started back going to the range at times when empty of other shooters. Never on weekends or late afternoons. Early mornings before noon seem to be the best times for being alone.

Me too. I've been hunting and shooting for ~60 years (though I rarely hunt any more now that my sons are out of the house and dragging a deer out of the woods is a lot of work for a 68 year old). I belong to a gun club, am a range safety officer, a NRA Distinguished Expert in Smallbore, have taught NRA Hunter Safety, and was a Rifle & Shotgun Shooting instructor for the Boy Scouts for a couple of years.

Despite (or because of) these bona fides, I'm an advocate of strict training requirements and background checks for gun ownership. Moreover, I would support the banning of all autoloading firearms and/or limiting magazine capacity for detachable magazines to 5 rounds. As it stands, one can only have 3 rounds in your shotgun to hunt gamebirds and hitting a flying dove is far more difficult than hitting a person close enough to pose a threat. The fetishization of the AR-15 is sickness IMO.

Speaking of gun fetishization (particularly of black military rifles), here's the Christmas picture of Tom Massie, Congressman from KY, released in the days following the school shootings in Michigan. I'm betting the sum total of penis lengths of the three guys in this picture is no more than 6".
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FFyIVyzX...g&name=900x900

The more time goes by a simple "toys" does not go far enough to explain the love and fascination for guns some have in this country.

Is it a addiction like affliction, or a Psychosis or mental illness of some kind? This love of a gun over people.

That the effected are so afraid that they need a gun to face the world. In order to feel safe around others have the need to carry a deadly weapon.

This country has a historical attitude of real men carry guns and whenever there's a problem the solution is to shoot it. When you ad that to my sig line, well...

Just because---:

They know very well the audience they're playing to.

Seeing that picture, with it's religious and guns thyme reminded me of a Taliban. Or similar pictures and how much they have in common.

Precisely. Start a controversy and raise money. Read yesterday that Sydney Powell claiming election fraud raised close to $20 Million.

Congressman shares photo celebrating guns at Christmas, days after a school shooting https://www.npr.org/2021/12/06/10617...day-photo-guns

The disease is spreading...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...holiday-photo/

All guns identical, brand-new, just from the box. Photo-props.

I hope you're right, Don Q.

The eight-year-old appears to have a cross-eyed condition.

AR-15 therapy didn't help the Sandy Hook shooter much at all.

Well I'm confident they were new-provided for this photo-shoot. I have no confidence at all in what will happen going forward....

"Before I got my AR-15, I could not see straight. Thanks Santa" !

Attachment 3890

Not that I'll ever own one, but it looks really interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOxtqvBAuho

Guns in public, it's about intimidation.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinio...tory-rcna35000