Should Hollywood Stop Using Guns?

Photo by Sarah Lachise on Unsplash

The tragedy that unfolded on the Rust set was, of course, completely preventable. And it has led to calls to ban the use of working weapons in filmmaking.

What We Know About What Happened?

I waited to write this until we had at least some clarity about the cause of the accident and sequence of events.

Not everything is clear yet, but here’s what we know:

• The assistant producer took a gun from an armory cart that was labeled as “cold,” that is to say unloaded.
• He handed this gun to Alec Baldwin and told him it was cold.
• Baldwin believed him and proceeded to rehearse a scene which involved him drawing the gun and pointing it at the camera.
• The gun contained a bullet, which was discharged while he did this, striking both the cinematographer and the assistant director.
• The cinematographer, sadly, did not survive her injuries.

On set shootings/accidents are rare. They make the news when they happen because they are so rare.

This one, though, leaves a huge, open question:

Where Did the Bullet Come From?