Actors and Gun Safety

The Alec Baldwin trial is going to begin in New Mexico. He has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for the fatal shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. I do not have all the evidence that the prosecutor has or will present to the jury, so I'll comment as a former police officer who carried a pistol that was loaded with 18 rounds of live ammunition.

"Unloaded guns" or the "Gee, I didn't know it was loaded!" plays a role in wounding and shooting deaths. Whether it's a movie set, range, or handing someone a gun, the assumption should be the weapon is loaded. Before you hand someone a firearm you should make sure that it is unloaded. No round in the barrel as well as an empty magazine, or in the case of a revolver, no rounds in the cylinder. The person who receives the firearm should repeat that check as well. Actors should have some classroom time so they can check any firearm that an armorer gives them on the movie or television set.

Keep your finger off the trigger and do not point the firearm at anyone. When it involves a movie set, any firearm that can fire blanks is not a prop, it is a firearm that has the potential of causing serious physical injury or death. There should be no live rounds anywhere on a movie set. In a police training scenario that is not on a range, the same rule should apply. There have been shooting accidents in police training exercises.

New police officers begin firearms training in a classroom setting and their first range experience is loading two rounds and firing. Then three rounds so they are not carrying a full magazine. They only load the number of rounds needed. The range instructor will tell them how many rounds to load.

Eventually, their range time will be a "hot range" qualification. A hot range means "fire two and holster," so in a fully loaded Glock 17, after firing two rounds, you still have 15 rounds in the magazine and one round "up the spout," as the Brits say.

If you go to shoot at an outdoor range, you should assume it is a hot range. Everyone should be on the same line when shooting. When it comes time to mark or replace your target, then everyone must move towards their targets at the same time, and they must be holstered. If someone does not want to move their target and move forward, they should unload and set their firearm down on a tray or place their unloaded pistol back in the holster until everyone is no longer down range.

Guns do not fire themselves. A firearm is an inanimate object until someone puts it in their hand.