The Price of a Gun
“I think he should be charged. If you point a gun at someone and it goes off and they’re killed as a result? Manslaughter. You don’t handle a firearm unless you know how.”
Dad was sounding off about the Alec Baldwin Rust on set tragedy.
In October 2021, Baldwin allegedly discharged a firearm prop while filming a scene for Rust on a ranch in New Mexico, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring the film's director Joel Souza. Hutchin's windowed husband filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin and the movie's other producers. Baldwin settled that lawsuit but was recently charged with involuntary manslaughter, along with Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the film’s armorer. Assistant director David Halls, who was reportedly the go-between, taking the gun from Gutierrez-Reed and handing it to Baldwin, agreed to plead guilty to negligent use of a deadly weapon. The terms include a suspended sentence and six months of probation.
There’s common practice on films and in theaters that does not level responsibility on actors shooting guns that have been (hopefully) properly vetted for safety by armorers and prop masters and then there is the law. The law does not exempt actors or performers should these sorts of mishaps occur.
“Hmmmm… Even if the producers hired someone to ensure the safety protocols?”
“Doesn’t matter. You shoot the gun, they die, you go to prison. Actors don’t get a pass.”
I’ll admit, the old cat has a point. If you are so bold as to grab a gun of any kind without serious training and an understanding of the safety protocols involved in shooting one and you accidentally pop someone, you should be held accountable. On set safety is serious business and, given the sheer number of films that involve gunplay (funny word as I’m not sure there’s a lot of play in the act) it’s extraordinary how few people have been shot, injured or killed, by prop guns. Apparently, most if not the vast majority of armorers take their job with earnestness.
As of this writing, at least eighteen people were shot and killed in California with two mass shootings in two days. Thirty-eight times in the past twenty-three days someone has walked into a public space and opened fire. Sure, lots of people were shot and killed but those mass shooting deals get lots of media attention. For some reason, when a lone asshole marches in and kills a dozen or so folks in one setting it gets far more attention than, say, the hundreds shot and killed in drive-by’s or liquor store holdups. It makes sense when the cry of the 2020’s is that Black Lives Matter but really only when it’s rabid cops doing the killing rather than random street violence by fellow citizens.
What sets the Baldwin case apart is that not only he, the shooter, is being charged but both his armorer and the guy who handed him the gun are being held to pay. Which opens up a larger question: why aren’t those who sell the guns to both crackpots with a mass shooting fetish and run-of-the-mill criminals likewise held accountable?
Scenario: Bob is mad. In general. He is lonely from COVID, has some incel shit going on, and basically hates the Chinese. He decides to do a mass shooting. He buys an AR-15 from Ted. Ted does the background check, Bob has some prior assault violations but, hey, a buck is a buck. Ted sells Bob the rifle. Bob kills a bunch of innocent people, turns the weapon on himself, boom.
The G decides that Ted, like Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is as culpable as Bob. He is charged with multiple counts of involuntary manslaughter. He goes to prison. The message is sent to all other retailers and private citizens who sell guns. They sell less guns to criminals and head cases. Mass shootings become less frequent.
This concept doesn’t infringe upon anyone’s Second Amendment rights. Ted can sell any kind of weapon to anyone he wants but he has the added consequence of selling to the wrong guy and instead of having the government regulate sales, Ted is required to regulate himself.
When Nevada went to the COVID lockdown, the governor didn’t mandate masks once we re-opened. He did require that casinos regulate them, requiring casinos to mandate masks or lose their gambling licenses. Corporate regulation. Why not push this idea onto weapon sales?
