Blanks Ban? Baldwin Shooting Renews Calls To End Prop Gun Use - Forbes

serongyu.blogspot.com

Topline

The accidental shooting by Alec Baldwin that killed a cinematographer and injured a director Thursday on the set of Rust has called wider attention to prop guns, and renewed questions within the filmmaking community over their continued use.

Key Facts

The entertainment industry uses toy guns as well as fully functional guns that are loaded with blank ammunition, which are cartridge cases with no bullets, and are instead filled with wads of paper, wax, or cotton.

Guns with blanks can still be deadly—actor Jon-Erik Hexum died after he fired a prop gun at his forehead on the set of Cover Up in 1984.

Actors’ Equity, the union that represents theater actors, called blanks “extremely dangerous,” and said actors should treat prop guns as if they are loaded and deadly.

Some Hollywood producers are attracted to prop guns’ authenticity—they match the recoil, loud bang and flash that computer-generated imaging (CGI) still struggles to emulate.

Critics of prop guns call for CGI to be the standard—even though the shots look less realistic, there is much less risk to the actors and crew on set.

Both Hollywood insiders and fans alike continue to question the safety protocols surrounding the Rust incident and how it could have been avoided.

Chief Critic

Director Craig Zobel said in a tweet that “there’s no reason to have guns loaded with blanks or anything on set anymore.” He added that prop guns “should just be fully outlawed.” Zobel continued that all of the gunfire on his latest show, Mare of Easttown, was special effects. “You can probably tell, but who cares?” he said. “It’s an unnecessary risk.”

Crucial Quote

Bill Davis, a weapons expert who has worked on film and television productions, emphasized that prop guns should be considered dangerous and only should be handled by a firearms expert on set in an interview with the BBC. “If someone actually put a live round in there, number one that shouldn’t have been on the set,” Davis said. “Number two, they should have visually inspected the gun first with a pencil down the barrel and a flashlight to make sure there’s no obstructions in the mechanism and number three, they need to inspect the round that’s going in there.”

Key Background

Alec Baldwin fired a shot with a prop gun Thursday that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, and injured director Joel Souza, 48, on set in Santa Fe, New Mexico. IATSE Local 44 claimed in an email that the prop gun contained a live round. The Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department has not yet made a determination on the type of round used in the shooting. The Props, Set Decoration, Special Effects and Construction Departments were not staffed by Local 44 members, and employed crew members from New Mexico, according to the email from IATSE. This isn’t the first time a prop gun has been involved in a shooting on set—actor Brandon Bruce Lee was fatally shot in 1993 while filming on the set of The Crow after a co-star fired shots from a prop gun he believed was loaded with blanks. Lee’s family spoke out following the Rust shooting in a tweet, writing “no one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set.”

Surprising Fact

Between 1990 and 2016, at least 43 people died on production sets in the U.S. and over 150 sustained life-altering injuries, according to the Associated Press.

What We Don’t Know

How the gun was able to be fired despite safety precautions set in place. The incident is under investigation, according to the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department. No charges have been filed.