Alec Baldwin Charged
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@George-K said in Alec Baldwin Charged:
@Mik said in Alec Baldwin Charged:
I'm not sure I can see how he can be charged .
He killed someone.
He didn't mean to do it.
That fits the definition, doesn't it?
Not when he was doing what actors are expected to do on a movie set, no.
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@Mik I'll disagree. He knew it was a real gun, and didn't take proper precautions to make sure that it wasn't a live round. Ultimately, it's his responsibility.
This may be a false analogy, but...Someone lends you his car, and that person doesn't know that the brakes are defective. You drive it away, assuming that the brakes are defective, and you kill someone crossing the street. Where does the responsibility lie?
Note that involuntary manslaughter is a fourth degree felony and punishable in New Mexico by up to three years imprisonment. In the grand scheme of things, it's not huge... But it's still prison time, regardless
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Legally the case will probably hinge on whether it’s a standard practice for actors to verify for themselves the safety checks that are the jobs of others to ensure. I doubt it’s a standard practice for actors to check their guns every time. It’s not even clear to me that the live ammo was visually obvious in this case.
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I wonder if his role as a producer has a bigger part to play than his role as an actor. If, for instance, he had been witness to unsafe handling by the armorer or was aware of her using the gun to fire live rounds then he would bear some responsibility for not stepping in.
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You could imagine blank rounds with square cross sectional shape and a square chamber in an otherwise realistic looking gun. So live rounds won’t even fit.
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@jon-nyc said in Alec Baldwin Charged:
You could imagine blank rounds with square cross sectional shape and a square chamber in an otherwise realistic looking gun. So live rounds won’t even fit.
True. However, getting realistic muzzle-flash would be a problem, I assume.
The director of Scarface, Brian DePalma was obsessed with realistic muzzle flash.
The prop firearms were equipped with electronic synchronising devices so that they would only fire when the camera shutter was open. The result was that the guns' muzzle flashes are much more visible and consistent than in most films.
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The cylinder is pretty iconic, when you're looking at it from the muzzle end.
Blanks have nothing that extends past the rim of the case. It's usually a piece of cardboard or similar stiff materia used as a wad to compress the gunpowder. Can't have too much uncompressed powder rattling around due to detonation issues. They don't look like the conical lead bullets of a revolver round.
So...In order to present an authentic looking Peacemaker with a muzzle shot, you either have to have weapon loaded with dummy rounds or a fake gun. Or you have to have a real gun with real rounds on a cleared range shooting just past a camera.
From a side angle or behind the shooter, blanks would work best...Keeping in mind that even blanks can be dangerous at certain distances.
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@Mik said in Alec Baldwin Charged:
This all boils down to live rounds on the set. Should have never happened.
QFT. What kind of idiot armorer allows, possibly even initiates, that.
There were all kinds of inappropriate things going on on the set wrt firearms. Target practice, and general tomfoolery.
A possible explanation:
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Ugh
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Ken White (aka Popehat) discussed this case and thinks there’s a decent chance Baldwin will have to accept some jail time in his plea or risk 18 months if a jury trial goes wrong.
He said it easily meets the state statute’s definition (“without due caution”) and furthermore Baldwin had painted himself into a corner with his public comments.