11/04/2021
It's been two weeks since the "Rust" shooting incident with Alec Baldwin, and because of the number of questions I've gotten from people, I feel compelled to offer my official take on it here.
I've worked as a paid professional armourer for film & television, using dummy rounds, blanks & live fire ammo in both modern and antique fi****ms. When on a film set I was responsible for all of the fi****ms from the time we showed up to the time we wrapped, and there was never an instance where I was told to distance myself from a scene where any of the fi****ms were being used. Everything (guns & ammo) was locked when not in my immediate care, and I was the only person who had the key. We NEVER pointed a real gun at anyone...EVER...let alone pulled the trigger with a blank at close range or in someone's general direction, and always making sure to fire obliquely away from the intended target. When doing live fire filming, the set was cleared of all non-essential crew, and even when firing near or close to the camera, the equipment was managed remotely. No one was ever down-range from a firearm when it was discharged. And because of our safety policies, we maintain a 100% safety record.
Despite all of this, we've had to argue with directors, assistant directors and numerous producers who've had the audacity to say on more than a few occasions "Relax, it's why we have insurance..." These people do exist in the industry, and there are more of them than you'd care to believe. While safety is a concern for them, it isn't their primary concern. We've watched as they chose to risk damaging our assets rather than take common-sense steps to simply "do the right thing" all in the name of saving time and money. On one occasion we threatened to leave the set and stop production if safety procedures weren't going to be followed.
I believe that industry protocols were clearly breached on the "Rust" set. Before the gun was placed in Baldwin's hands, someone was responsible for looking at each and every round in the gun. Had that simple step been performed, the live round would have been discovered, and no one would have been injured let alone killed. Additionally, Baldwin should never have pointed a gun at anyone and pulled the trigger. ANYONE. If the scene called for the ever-so-popular gun wave, pistol whipping or gun-to-the-head threat, a non-firing or rubber prop gun should have been used. That wasn't the case here either. I believe this was human error and it was preventable. Some have suggested that it was possible someone intentionally slipped live rounds along with the blanks as a means to sabotage the film. While that is conjecture, conducting even the basic safety check still would have prevented this tragedy.
And now the "virtue signaling" will begin in earnest, where "live guns" will be banned from production work going forward. Instead of embracing safety, as has been the norm for over a century of Hollywood glorifying gun violence for the purposes of entertainment, they will blame the gun and not the person. The hypocrisy of Hollywood knows no bounds. My two cents. ~ Damian Siekonic
