I know nothing about what goes on outside my little Gulch and therefore am not qualified to opine on any of it. But virtually nothing is going on here at the Secret Lair except multiple walkies per day, daily emptying the bail bucket from that yard leak, and longing for a warmer Ian’s Cave so I can have another shower. I’m stuck for things to write about.
I got up this morning and my news feed was full of somebody named – here, I wrote it down – Hannah Gutierrez-Reed – who I gather is the nepobaby who posed as the armorer on the now-long-abandoned TV show or whatever it was where Alec Baldwin accidentally shot a couple of people with one bullet a few years ago, which caused every trained shooter in America to simultaneously concuss themselves with face palms. The big question oft repeated on the gunternet for weeks afterward: “How does one sapient being make that many mistakes at the same time? Especially one paid to know what she’s doing?” Because God knows nobody expects Alec Baldwin to know what he’s doing with anything but a script and maybe a crack pipe*.
Anyway – since then I’ve paid very little attention to the various legal troubles of all the survivors of that tragedy. But here was the first criminal conviction finally come down, and in one worth-a-thousand-words photo I saw the explanation for how the person who’s supposed to be the professional gun-handler on the set could possibly have allowed such an avoidable thing to happen.
Ladies and Gentlemen, children of all genders, I give you Hannah Gutierrez-Reed circa 2021:
Private to the unknown but undoubtedly large percentage of TUAK readers who know how to handle firearms: Tell me that if this person handed you a revolver claiming it was safe to fire at people and/or things, you wouldn’t immediately check every chamber in the cylinder yourself before doing anything with it other than gingerly putting it down and backing away.
I gather she made herself look a lot more normal before appearing in court, and that may be the first smart thing she’s done since grammar school.
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*Insert obligatory dig at the hypocrisy of a loud gun ban enthusiast who makes his living playing with guns…
Not that it matters now , he father was a quick draw guy in the 60’s -70’s . I’m sure that he would be disappointed in her and pissed at the Turd baldwin.
Plenty of blame to go around, including the fact that as the director, Baldwin hired her. None the less, having live rounds mixed with dummies is just so stupid that it makes you wonder why she claimed to be competent.
After all the talk and excuses, the fact remains that Baldwin killed someone. The fact that he didn’t mean to is irrelevant. If you or I did that we could safely assume a prison sentence. He should also!
What I see here is an employee (qualified it or) who fucked up on the job and got some people hurt (well, killed). It could have happened to many of us over our careers, certainly to me. Example: the mechanic who forgets to tighten a brake line, so the customer has a fatal accident on the way home.
In our world this can trigger some nasty and expensive legal consequences, but these are usually civil, not criminal.
What makes this case different? Is it because the tool involved in this case is a gun, rather than a wrench?
Yep – her dad is Thell Reed who was a contemporary of Jeff Cooper, Carl Weaver and the rest when it came to developing combat pistol protocols/techniques and everything that went along with it. He also served as an armorer himself on various movies. But this whole thing appeared to be a comedy of errors where people who knew what they should be doing weren’t overseeing or were unable to oversee the little things that caused this tragedy… Like what the hell were live rounds doing anywhere near that set ?… And Alec Baldwin himself is culpable because he violated one of the cardinal rules… Don’t point a gun at anything you are unwilling to destroy
Alec Baldwin isn’t alone, Hollywood is full of anti gun hypocrites. I’m hoping that Baldwin will be next to take a fall.
“she made herself look a lot more normal” Yah, before reading that sentence I was thinking that sure don’t look like the picture in the newspaper.
Aesop weighs in at https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2024/03/prop-tart.html
Me being the cynic and reading between the lines.
The producer’s next project was a documentary about Hollywood pedophiles. Maybe someone was terrified of that.
So maybe someone told (blackmailed) Baldwin to get rid of the threat of exposure. He would find a scapegoat and claim it wasn’t his fault. Being a celebrity, he could wash it all off and be done with it.
I don’t believe anyone but the Armorer normally touches the ammo. So he could easily slip in a few live rounds and blame her for incompetence. Too many things add up to make it just an accident. The crew were off set with the revolvers target shooting so there WAS live ammo nearby. So it got mixed up? Intentional. Why would the actor point his gun at anyone besides another actor during a scene?
Does anyone remember seeing Baldwin buying live ammo.
I laughed at “children of all genders”… the modern/warped version of ‘boys & girls’.
Well played Joel!
Ben: Example: the mechanic who forgets to tighten a brake line, so the customer has a fatal accident on the way home.
In our world this can trigger some nasty and expensive legal consequences, but these are usually civil, not criminal.
What makes this case different? Is it because the tool involved in this case is a gun, rather than a wrench?
The difference was that your mechanic didn’t cut the brake, where the “armorer” did load a live round (that wasn’t supposed to be onsite at all), left the firearm unattended, then handed it over without checking it again.
She didnt hand Baldwin the gun. His assistant did and told him it was cold.
“….you wouldn’t immediately check every chamber in the cylinder yourself …”
I’d immediately decline and step way back. I would not want my fingerprints on that gun. There would not only be no guarantee that it was not loaded, or loaded correctly, there would be no assurance the gun itself would be safe to handle.
Remembering that no one in Hollywood Land knows anything about guns – and is quite proud of it – except that they help sell tickets it is surprising that more such accidents do not occur.
While a lot of people expect Baldwin to be found guilty, I think they’ve found their scapegoat. She’s guilty. It’s her fault.