I could believe that if she followed him to work and watched him work at home during her childhood, she might have absorbed the essential knowledge. I mean, Hollywood is full of second or even third generation actors, directors, screenwriters and backstage crew. And so is the larger world; I’m sure we all know people who followed a parent into medicine, the law, the military or another profession.
So I would not be bothered that she’s in the same job as her father.
That is in fact supposed to be the procedure when ‘Dummy’ bullets are used. The actor is supposed to, in the presense of the armorer, dry fire the gun at the ground as mahy times are there are dummy bullets, to verify that they are all dummies.
For automatic weapons with magazines this doesn’t work, so you have to check each dummy round by shaking it to hear bbs where piwder would be, and that the primer is already dimpled.
If there are no dummies in the gun, you just need to visually inspect the cylinder and barrel.
That seems like a procedure that’s only safe when it’s not needed. If a live bullet accidentally made it into the gun, the actor would be firing a real bullet on set with the associated risks.
And what if a gun does have a live round? Bullets bounce off the ground and can hit people on the ricochet. And it can bounce off debris on the ground and send shrapnel flying.
It’s a final check. You still do all the other stuff, but if there is a live bullet in there, better to shoot it at the ground than at an actor.
Bullet traps
Upthread someone said anyone putting live ammo into the guns should have been fired. I’m not disagreeing, but there should have been no live ammo on the set for anyone to put into the guns, period, and clearly there was.
Sheriff Mendoza said they recovered a “lead projectile” that was removed from the director’s shoulder, and they “recovered possible additional live rounds.” Blanks and dummy rounds don’t contain lead projectiles, correct?
I suppose it’s possible some of the ammo on the set was brought in by crew/cast members, but it’s much more probable that Gutierrez brought the live ammo, given that she was the person who knew exactly which guns she planned to bring on set. Why would she bring live ammo? The only reason I can think of is that she thought it’d be fun to get cast/crew to do some target-shooting. That’s speculation, of course, but what other reasons would there be? And if that WAS what happened, I’m less inclined to blame people who trusted the armorer that target shooting was OK than I am the armorer, herself.
Dunno, this movie has probably now gotten the most free press of anything since CNN discovered Donald Trump. The producers may be drooling to get this thing released and might need to, to cover their legal costs.
A dummy round might have a lead bullet, if it’s made by disassembling a real cartridge, removing the charge and primer, and pressing the bullet back into the case.
I understand this was the historical practice. The death of Brandon Lee was cause by a faulty dummy round (with no powder but a live primer) that left the bullet in the barrel, followed later by a blank that pushed the loose bullet down the barrel at killing velocity.
I speculate as you do that she brought the bullets. Perhaps she thought live firing was a necessary part of the safety training for the actors. It’s very common for actors to get live fire training before they take a role in order to get more comfortable with firearms and to improvev their acting. I don’t work in Hollywood but it seems weird to me to try to do live fire training on or near the set. I can’t see any reason she would allow other crew to fire the guns other than that it’s fun.
Of course, I also don’t understand why the guns and ammo weren’t either separately locked up or under her direct control and supervision at all times. “Left on a cart” is bizarre. Allegations that crew members were just popping off rounds after hours is crazy if true.
You really think Baldwin and all the other actors involved are going to come back in 6 months time and resume filming? No way.
You think anybody wants to finish this crappy low-budget movie? Or distribute it? Or see it? It has too many negative associations.
I’m going to change my estimate of the chances of it being completed from ‘approximately zero’ to zero.
Thanks for that. It certainly is possible to pop the cylinder but it’s more difficult than on other Colts.
Thanks for dispelling my ignorance! I’m still pretty sure it was an actual bullet, since the sheriff referred to it as a live round and differentiated between blanks, dummy rounds, and live rounds.
At this point if it comes out that they were playing “William Tell” and Russian roulette I honestly would not be surprised. Every worst assumption turns out to be true, over and over.
And – just to take the baseless speculation a skosh further …
The hypothetical late-night plinking was probably an activity that was enjoyed by some pretty overworked, sleep-deprived, and quite possibly inebriated people.
Which would only compound the risk/stupidity factors.
Firing into the ground - or if possible downrange - is the last step in the safety check of a firearm, but only after you’ve done all the others.
Yes, bullets can bounce or shatter, but it still beats a direct hit to the chest.
Then it’s better that’s it’s aiming at the ground than at a person. Why is this so hard to understand? It’s just a quick additional check that could save someone’s life.
Would it be a surprise if someone like Gutierrez-Reed carried a personal weapon? It wouldn’t be noteworthy if several members of the cast a crew regularly carried handguns, concealed or otherwise. Would they be explicitly forbidden from doing so on a movie set? Would a professional armorer? I don’t know, but in America, guns and ammo are around us 24/7.
I don’t think this accident made the movie any crappier. One thing that’s happened, though, is that a movie that nobody had ever heard about is now world-famous. Not in a good way, but is there really such a thing as bad publicity in the movie biz?
I think the real issue against the film being completed is that it’s unlikely that Baldwin and perhaps others will want to continue. Also, with Gutierrez and Halls almost certainly being fired and likely facing criminal charges, and the death of the cinematographer, this sorry outfit would have to do some re-staffing in an environment where few will likely want to work there. So, yeah, on balance I’m now also estimating the chances of completion being lower than I initially thought.
Notice the Snap-Caps – dummy rounds – are tinted red. Of course, he is not trying to simulate a real cartridge as would a gun on a movie set.
Also notice he fumbled a bit putting the gun on half-cock so he could load the cylinder. You can see how a bit more of a slip could let the hammer fall on a cylinder with a live round in it.