A court ruling on Friday put an involuntary manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin on track for trial in early July as a judge denied a request to dismiss the case on complaints that key evidence was damaged by the FBI during forensic testing.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer sided with prosecutors in rejecting a motion to dismiss the case.
Defense attorneys had argued that the gun in the fatal shooting was heavily damaged during FBI forensic testing before it could be examined for possible modifications or problems that might exonerate the actor-producer.
The ruling removes one of the last hurdles before prosecutors can bring the case to trial with jury selection scheduled for July 9 in Santa Fe.
Trusting actors who studied Shakespeare in college to be responsible for determining if a prop is actually a lethal weapon is absurd. That’s why there’s a trained person on set where that’s literally their whole responsibility. I like Baldwin’s acting. I’ve also heard he’s shitty to his daughter. I’m not defending him as a person. I’m defending him because he’s innocent of this charge. His job was to point something that resembled a gun at someone and pull the trigger. It was someone else’s to ensure that would be a safe action.
It wasn’t even during a scene and even if it was, Alec had violated all four rules of firearm safety for it to happen. Studying Shakespeare in college is tough, learning the four rules is not, don’t even need a college degree for that
If you’re bringing in the four rules in a discussion about gun safety on movie sets then you’re not arguing in good faith. As an actor you must trust that the armorer is never going to hand you an unsafe gun. If they do, it’s on the armorer.
Actors are not and should not be responsible for gun safety on set. You expect a low IQ former drama kid with a coke habit who worships scientology from a country where it’s not even legal to own a firearm to be responsible? When every other scene in an action film explicitly requires that they break every single one of the 4 rules of gun safety?
If it’s during a scene, sure let’s break those rules. Once everything has been determined safe by everyone involved. Also yes, no matter who it is, I would expect anyone handed a gun to be responsible with the gun. I’ve never argued that other people aren’t responsible as well, just that Alec should be held responsible for his role. Let’s not forget that this actor killed someone, and he should face the same consequences that any average person would.
Which is fine, but you’ve misattributed what the part he played that makes him guilty is. Had it been any other actor they’d not be guilty, as has already been explained actors cannot reasonably be expected to know they’ve been handed an unsafe weapon by the armorer.
Baldwin was a producer and directly involved in the hiring process of those on the crew. He hired an incompetent armorer AS WELL as misbehaved on set as a producer leading to an unsafe work environment. Baldwin is guilty no matter who pulled that trigger.