Alec Baldwin on Rust killing: "The trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger.”

boing
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You’re correct. Manufacturing defects or design flaws can lead to lawsuits. Worn or altered parts would not be something brought against a manufacturer.

With revolvers probably the most well known example is Ruger’s single action revolvers. Even with the fix being implemented in the 80s and applying to pre-1973 models, they still post notices about it to have an old one sent in for a retro fit.

My dad bought a used bolt action rifle that he figured out had a slightly out of round chamber. He sent it back to Remington who rebarreled it free of charge, but charged him $75 to replace the trigger, as someone had altered it and they won’t send a gun altered in that way back out. They manufactures are certainly keenly aware of liability for a faulty product.

Because things done on movie sets are not transferable to real world gun handing. When you have people shooting at each other, flagging people with muzzles, you hare violating actual safety rules left and right. Because a western outlaw or mobster doesn’t care if they flag someone.

Actors can be expected to know and operate a firearm safely in general, but most of them do not have the knowledge to handle everything safely with out supervision. Some may, but that is why you have experts on hand to oversee everything. The experts on hand should never had live ammo on set, nor mixed it up with the dummy rounds.

An actor my know how to properly rig themselves into a harness, or set a squib, or prep a car for stunt - but they have other duties and those should be handled by the teams of people trained to oversee and focus on the stunt at hand.

Brandon Lee’s accident was a tragedy due to poor process by the gun handler. The person who shot him used blanks, but there was a barrel obstruction that was dislodged afterwards. Even if the actor checked to make sure they were blanks, he had no reason to believe there was an obstruction.

I would agree with you in most other examples of real world use, as the handler is the person who should be in control and know how their firearm operates. The exception is someone receiving bad instruction or lack of supervision that results in an accident. I can think of a couple examples where the shooter wasn’t at fault.

At any rate, I suppose the investigation will play out and we shall see if there is negligence charges brought or not.

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I get what you’re saying, but I still disagree that it’s okay to ignore safety rules because it’d otherwise be an inconvenience to someone’s bottom line or might require rich people to do more work. When you create exceptions to safety rules, you get accidents. That it doesn’t happen MORE is pure luck. It’s just bothersome to me that people are so insistent that guns need stricter controls, yet, when there’s a concrete example of situations where people AREN’T following stricter controls, people fall all over themselves to defend the people who aren’t following those controls.

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Real guns on a set!! Really??

I know that actors need real weight in a prop ‘can’t hold an empty suitcase and make it look heavy’.

Real guns on a set???

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So-called “prop guns” in movies are usually just real guns that are firing blanks (cartridges with primer and gunpowder but no bullet tip so they make a bang/smoke) or loaded with dummy rounds (cartridge with bullet tip but no gunpowder or primer so they look real on camera - think a scene loading a magazine or looking at the chamber of a revolver) and may otherwise be lightly modified.

There can also replica guns or “rubber guns” that can be used on set but those are usually reserved for extras or background actors. Typically the principal actors are handling real firearms. That’s why it’s so important to have proper safety protocols and a competent armorer.

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Semiautomatic and automatic weapons are usually modified to work with blanks. (something about cycling…) Revolvers don’t need to be, so they aren’t.

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And there is absolutely no reason that has to be. Plug the barrel and chamber. File off the firing pin. Anyone arguing this can’t be done is going in my “unreasonable gun nut” section of my .ignore file.

I pledge here and now to never be disappointed by a gun scene where the flash and recoil done look “real enough”. I’ve fired enough weapons, including grenades, mortars, and anti-tank weapons (Canadian Infantry, '81-85) to know that the vast majority of weapons don’t look real in film. And the vast majority of film-goes haven’t seen the real thing, either.

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Pretty sure the clever folks in hollywood could make semi- and full-auto weapons work without the explody bits. Someone with Patreon-level access to Adam Savage should ask him about this; he consistently ignores my non-paying comments.

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Same, grew up a southern kid and just had the access and a LOT of safety training. No military experience. It’s funny as hell to me that people are defending real guns on sets because “people can tell the difference” and then the whole gun fight scene behaves WILDLY differently than it would have in real life, because in real life it just wouldn’t be that long or compelling.

Real guns shouldn’t be necessary.

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No arguments here. I’m simply answering OP’s question.

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Airsoft is popular. Doesn’t have the recoil, and the smoke has to be added in post (which, depending on the source, is either a money pit for ultra low budget films, or costs on the order of 30 cents per shot).

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What if the cast and crew needs to plink?

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They should not have done that. If you want to give actors an experience with shooting firearms for familiarity and understanding on how something would recoil etc, ok. But it should be done at a range in a different location.

Or in this case, plinking. Plinking is super fun - but you should not be doing it while on a movie set.

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There are plenty of places proximate to LA where they could have gone shooting if familiarization was their intention. They could also have gotten them good training on safe handling as well. There’s little excuse for a professional actor to not have this kind of training if they are to play a role that requires the use of firearms. Given the effort that many actors and actresses go through to prepare for roles, it’s downright neglegent for them not to have gotten the proper training.

Go google videos of Keanu Reeves or Will Smith training for roles. Put in the effort and don’t risk others lives.

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