I'm sure the job interview had a version of the Jeff Spicoli line: "Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it".

After the press conference yesterday this armorer stated that "There was no live ammo on set and she checked the guns before going to lunch". That's complete BS.

And why she wasn't on set to personally hand the gun to AB is beyond comprehension, the old "You had ONE job!".

The "rules of firearm safety" has been gone over and debated enough but you have to remember 2 things about film sets.

1. There is never live ammo. Ever.

2. You may be dealing with an actor who is legitimately afraid of guns, doesn't like them, doesn't own them, has no interest in them and wants to handle them as little as possible.

I do think there will be some type of manslaughter charges, too many rules were broken.

And AB showed his true colors by throwing the AD under the bus.

At first glance of this post, I thought, "Hey, i could do this job too." But just hell no. I hate being around guns and people who aren't gun people at the same time. I see it all the time at the range. Usually the non-gun people are there to learn, are genuinely curious and take direction well from their friend or instructor next to then in the lane. But I've just seen too much bad behavior (both unintentional and negligent) around guns at ranges. The two I frequent have fanatical range officers and they enforce the rules militantly. But they can't watch everyone all the time. I suppose it's not that hard on a movie set, as only a handful of people would be touching the guns. But just hell no. I can't wrap my head around pointing guns at people for any purpose other than killing them in self defense.

The armorer apparently stated to the police that she checked the pistol before going to lunch and locked it into a gun safe . The movie production started again after lunch but before the armorer came back from lunch . So someone ( ? ) else removed the pistol from the safe . This assumes what she is saying is accurate and truthful .

So IF she checked the gun before lunch and IF it was a cold gun and locked up doesn't that clear her ? Someone else removed the gun and apparently loaded with incorrect ammo . Or handed it off to someone else that loaded it incorrectly . Way too many safety protocols were breeched and we only know the tip of the iceberg . Police will continue to examine/interview and slowly peel back the onion .

My guess is the AD will take the major blame with Baldwin taking the secondary hit . I think the armorer may come out of it legally . Mentally they all will carry this to their graves .

If I’m Baldwin’s counsel, I’m telling him to STFU!

If I’m Baldwin, I’m too arrogant and stupid to.

So, who took the initiative to get the revolver to AB? Did AB tell the AD that he needed to practice, go grab a revolver? Did the AD say the armorer was not on set yet and AB said get it anyway? Or did the AD just go over and grab it for AB so he could practice and the AD had no clue what a cold gun is?

I think I read somewhere that the firearms were locked in a safe during lunch break and that the ‘armorer’ was not the only one who knew the combo.

I think that we are in agreement here!

I think someone's lying. Stuff just doesn't add up. Weapons should have never been brought to set loaded, whether it was blanks or dummy rounds. Weapons should have never been handed out by anyone but the armorer. Weapons should have never been left unattended for anyone to grab, not even the AD or director.

I can see where the failure began. It began when they hired this girl.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/24-year-old-rust-armorer-once-made-nicolas-cage-curse-storm-off-set-after-firing-gun-report

I would counter that given how this seems to have played out that it still could have happened even if they hadn't hired her.

The producer chose to accept a gun from someone other than the armorer, and then play with it.
That means the producer knew that people other than the armorer had access to the guns.
That means the producer was completely on board circumnavigating whoever the armorer might have been.
The only difference a different armorer might have made is that different armorer might have resigned upon finding out how Producer Actor Alec Baldwin intended to run things.
Then we are still back to how Alec Baldwin intended to run things.

For those of you in the business , how many people " normally " know the combination for the gun safe on the set ? Obviously the more people that have access the higher chance of security failure .

To do the job you have to have the will power to stand up to greedy soulless monster producers, tantrum throwing low IQ actors and a general California culture that doesn’t understand or respect guns.

When the crew says let’s take a gun and go plinking after work you have to say no.

Our South Bay Rod and Gun Club has a whole bunch of us that do once a month (or more) "Range Safety Officers" and our main job is to watch how the folks are handling their rifles and pistols. If they are un safe we have a short talk with them and most all the time they respond well. Now and then we have someone who will not listen and they are made to leave. As an example an Asian fellow with his son was shooting their AR-15 and son's 22LR bolt action rifle. The dad then pulled out a brand new American made copy of the semi auto AK47 that was still in the cardboard shipping box. Myself and another RO asked him "hey is it brand new?" and he said sure is...... His son moved back and sat on one of our benches and dad loaded a magazine and popped it in the rifle then racked it quickly. Raised it up, pulled the trigger and BOOM it had a blocked barrel due to packing grease and he had never cleaned it. Scared the hell out of his son, the bolt and other pieces flew off!

We asked him nicely to pick up the pieces and all his stuff and go home. The lead RO chewed him out well and said not to come back until the gun was well cleaned and to have it checked by a good gunsmith. I thought he was going to cry but I found out later he did that visit to a gunsmith and it was a hard lesson, fortunately no one was hurt!

We get a class yearly from the NRA and they do have classes on all sorts of things and I do the class on black powder both cartridges and muzzle loaders as well as regular safety.
John

I am not in the business but the correct answer should be 1.

I know what the correct answer should be , but I want to know what it really is . Obviously it's more than one based on this tragedy .

You might be surprised - we use RCTs as entry-points here in Los Alamos. Few of them stay in that job long. Those are techs though. Our criticality analysts are usually a little more senior. And those are in short supply, so if you can spell MCNP (monte carlo neutron physics) we're hiring!

And we've also had a "that wasn't a blank?!?" tragedy maybe twenty years or so ago, on Xmas eve believe it or not. I think that actually made the pro-force move to "exercise-only" weapons incapable of firing live rounds. With at least two operating live-fire "shoot-houses" onsite I'm amazed nothing's happened since to be honest. We did however have one guard "dry-fire" a TV/monitor to an early grave at our plutonium facility. Must get boring at 0300...

I know you do. I didn't read anywhere there was a safe. I read the guns 3 as I recall were left on a cart. So were they locked up?

2. Armorer and prop master.

https://apnews.com/article/prop-gun-shooting-entertainment-shootings-movies-santa-fe-4a8e63727b0824d7a402f731b6ec54ea

“When the crew broke for lunch, the guns used for filming were locked in a safe inside a large white truck where props were kept, Gutierrez Reed said. The ammunition, however, was left unsecured on a cart. There was additional ammo inside the prop truck.”

That may be;

I am not in the business but the correct answer should be 1.
Armorer.

Armorer isn't back from lunch? You wait. I think this incident proves it.

Discussion is getting circular. AD screwed up huge and not his first time it seems. "Armourer" screwed up huge and I guess she won't get a second time. Whole operation and crew seem pretty lax overall. I am still interested in what kind of "producer" Baldwin was. The "honorary" kind, or the kind who is actually in control. Probably of no practical import, his wallet is gonna get turned inside out just like the production company's and other producers', hopefully he carries a whole lot of personal insurance.