Yes or no, with your reason. Me, yes, I would have been.
As an actor, no.
As a producer, yes.
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If you did the same exact thing at home, your wife handed you a weapon telling you it was unloaded and you turned around and shot someone, where do you think you would be spending the night?
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Do we know exactly what happened yet? Aren’t they still investigating?
Yes to a negligent homicide charge. There doesn’t appear to be any criminal intent and the weapon was real, the outcome real and being on a movie set doesn’t change any of that. Extenuation and mitigation can be argued during the sentencing phase.
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There are two types of weapons discharges:
Intentional
Negligent
There is no such thing as “accidental”.
Baldwin had a negligent discharge that killed one person and wounded another.
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And any one of us would have already been charged.
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Taken in handcuffs for questioning. Charged with absolutely anything they think can bag them some federal coin. Put on bail that normal people couldn’t afford to post.
He deserves equal treatment under the law.
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From the article:
But when Massee fired the .44 Magnum revolver, the gunpowder in the blank cartridge ignited a bullet fragment that became embedded in the barrel, propelling it into Lee’s body about 15 feet away at Carolco Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, The Sun reported.
After an investigation, District Attorney Jerry Spivey said no criminal charges would be filed over Lee’s death because, while negligence was a factor, there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, the Times reported in 1993.
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Why do you think Baldwin hasn’t been charged?
I would say yes. Involuntary manslaughter.
Anyone handling a firearm has an obligation (perhaps not legal, but certainly moral) to check the condition of said firearm. The cylinder should be flipped out and examined on a revolver, a semi automatic should have its magazine dropped and the chamber cleared. Once someone hands you a firearm, you are responsible for doing those things.
He was negligent, trusting the word of someone else, and a woman is dead because of it.
That said, he is not the only person responsible. There are a chain of people involved that shoulder the blame as well.
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Because he had no way of knowing said fragment was there, that is the result of an unknowable defect.
In that last hypothetical we have no innocent accident, and we have no mere civil negligence—instead, we have, with the pointing of the weapon at the victims and the deliberate press of the trigger, criminal recklessness.
The gun did not go off for unforeseeable reasons, such as a hidden defect. The gun discharged because it operated as designed—to fire when the trigger is depressed. Of course, the gun must be loaded when the trigger is depressed in order to cause harm—but as the tragic consequences here amply demonstrate, the gun was loaded. It would be the duty of the person wielding the gun to ensure it was unloaded if they wished to cause no harm when they depressed the trigger—and clearly that duty was not met.
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If I were to speculate? They have been working hard for decades to attract more and more filmmakers to their state, probably didn’t want to throw a wrench into that.
This is exactly my position
You really think for one second that “they told me it wasn’t loaded” would get any of us off the hook? Please. So unless someone legislatively carved out an exception for actors he should be charged with involuntary manslaughter.
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Massee couldn’t have seen the bullet fragment embedded in the barrel if he had checked the weapon thoroughly before firing it? The cops said he was negligent. What do they think he should have done differently?
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I would assume the fragment was lodged after it was initially checked. Much different than not being checked and having live rounds in it already.
The fragment was apparently part of a dummy shell that became lodged in the barrel, in what is known as a “squib load,” during a previous scene without anyone realizing. It struck Lee with virtually the same force as a live round.
Is that what happened with Baldwin? I thought they were still investigating?
Nobody checks a gun barrel after every shot. I would imagine even less so if they are shooting blanks.
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