{"id":7002,"date":"2021-11-07T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-07T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=7002"},"modified":"2021-10-31T21:44:19","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T01:44:19","slug":"what-alec-baldwin-could-have-looked-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/what-alec-baldwin-could-have-looked-for\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT ALEC BALDWIN COULD HAVE LOOKED FOR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The controversy over the fatal shooting on the movie set involving Alec Baldwin continues, still rife with misinformation and a circular firing squad of pointed fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019ve said here before, Baldwin strikes me as an over-entitled bully and hypocritical anti-gunner, but like anyone else he still deserves a fair trial.  That won\u2019t take place in the court of public opinion\u2026nor in the court of \u201cshooter opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve never even been on a movie set. TV sets, sure, after nine years in the medium. But we were doing shooting <\/em>shows pioneered by Tom Gresham: for us, there were no blank cartridges at all. As with most shooting shows on TV today, we worked exclusively with live ammunition, using remote cameras if we needed photo angles from downrange. The usual four rules were in play: treat every gun as if it\u2019s loaded, don\u2019t point it at anything we\u2019re not prepared to kill or destroy, keep the finger out of the trigger guard unless and until we are in the very act of intentionally discharging the weapon, and always be certain of the target and what is behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baldwin, obviously, violated all four of those rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the rules are different in Hollywood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who do regularly work on movie sets with firearms say their rules are completely different. To us shooters, \u201cCold gun\u201d means unloaded, not even blanks on board, while \u201chot gun\u201d means live \u201cthis stuff can kill what\u2019s in front of it\u201d ammunition.  However, since live ammunition is supposed to be strictly forbidden on the set under \u201cHollywood Rules,\u201d they don\u2019t have a term for live ammo at all.  <\/em>To them, we are told, \u201cCold gun\u201d means the same as it does to us, no cartridges of any kind in the gun, blank or otherwise, but \u201cHot gun\u201d means a gun containing blanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will doubtless be emphasized by Baldwin\u2019s defense lawyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, I\u2019m told that union rules and common custom and practice on action movie sets both <\/em>forbid the actor to unload, load, or even open or check the gun that sometimes fires blanks.  Having supposedly been checked by the designated on-set armorer, the gun might be seen as contaminated by an actor seen \u201cfiddling\u201d with it, and the armorer would have to prep it again, and it would theoretically continue like an endless circle with filming never getting done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expect the Baldwin defense to emphasize this, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gun in question was a single action revolver, either a genuine Colt or a close Italian copy thereof, in the classic Single Action Army pattern.  If even a blank cartridge is in the chamber, its rim is visible through the gap between the \u201crecoil shield\u201d area of the frame and the rear of the cylinder.  Now, because the recoil shield area is quite wide on these \u201cPeacemaker\u201d style single actions, those rims can\u2019t be seen by an eye directly behind the revolver, i.e., aiming it; they aren\u2019t visible from that angle as are cartridges in modern double action revolvers, which have smaller recoil shields.  But they <\/em>are <\/strong>clearly visible from the side, or from above.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mere glance should have told Baldwin that there was some kind of torpedo in the launch tube, and the gun was not <\/em><\/strong>\u201ccold.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in my humble opinion, Alec Baldwin is by no means out of the woods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Our
Our lead photo, above, shows cartridge rims clearly visible in back of cylinder of Ruger Blackhawk .44 Magnum, similar in configuration to the death weapon in the Baldwin shooting. Here, without opening the gun, we can clearly see that there are no cartridge rims visible. Gun is “Cold.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Loaded\/unloaded
Loaded\/unloaded status on this type of revolver is normally checked by opening loading gate as shown, rotating cylinder, and checking chamber by chamber. If rules on set do not allow actor to do this, actor has other ways of checking load status, as discussed in text and other captioned photos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Simply
Simply glancing down from above can reveal cartridge presence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Recoil
Recoil shield design on this type of revolver DOES block view of cartridge rims in cylinder when aimed from eye level.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Smaller
Smaller recoil shields on most modern double action revolvers such as this Smith & Wesson Model 340 M&P DO allow shooter to see cartridge rims from the view directly behind the gun.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The controversy over the fatal shooting on the movie set involving Alec Baldwin continues, still rife with misinformation and a circular firing squad of pointed fingers. As I\u2019ve said here before, Baldwin strikes me as an over-entitled bully and hypocritical anti-gunner, but like anyone else he still deserves a fair trial.  That won\u2019t take place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7002"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7013,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7002\/revisions\/7013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}