Alec Baldwin shoots two, one dead, while filming

There was a HS kid in Utah that died after aiming the prop gun from their school performance of Oklahoma! at his head and pulling the trigger.

A little amazed that the gun was able to kill one and critically injure another.

Interesting reading different news outlets statement of the facts. Most like this indicate the gun was discharged by Alec Baldwin. But I did see one that said on individual was killed and another critically wounded after being shot by Alec Baldwin.

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: News that makes you say WTF?!?!

Certainly any life insurance on the cinematographer, be it group through the production company, spouse life through her spouse’s employer, individual life, will all come into play, as well as any accidental death coverage… other than the unlikely event that this is ruled a suicide on her part.

If it’s murder (also unlikely but more likely than suicide IMO) that will still trigger an accidental death payout. And obviously a true accident (most likely) will as well.

Thanks Lucy!

Dumb question: are these blanks in real guns that are turning out to be fatal?

If so, WTF is a high school kid doing with a real gun? Sheesh, when we had a murder scene in a school play we used a cap gun.

A Hollywood movie I could see wanting to be more realistic looking, but still…

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Further reading pointed to the death of Brandon Lee where the gun was supposed to have blanks, but actually had a real bullet “lodged in the barrel”. When the prop gun was fired, the real bullet killed Lee.

So my next questions are, WTF are they doing with guns that haven’t been properly cleaned? How does a real bullet get into a prop gun in the first place?

Are the prop guys taking the guns to the shooting range on the weekend or something???

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I want to know how he hit two people. The article i read said the gun had blanks. I can see there being enough discharge to kill one person directly in front of it, but a second person was hospitalized. WTF happened?

news magazine People reported that a spokesperson for Baldwin had said there was an “accident” involving the “misfire of a prop gun with blanks.”

High calibre bullet could get through two people pretty easy.

Fired from a prop gun loaded with blanks?

On the morning news the reporter said that the prop gun had been loaded with live ammo. Why there is live ammo on a movie set, I don’t know. That’s the same sort of non-sense that killed Brandon Lee during the filming of The Crow.

When I was in high school be had a starter pistol for one of the plays that fired blanks. Blanks are shells loaded with gun powder and sealed off but they do have a wad of paper inside the shell that is expelled. At very close range there can be enough force from both the expelled wad and the kinetic energy of the expelled gas from the ignition of the gun powder to penetrate flesh and sometimes bone. Depending on where on his head the gun was placed, firing at point blank range could kill a person. I was the prop master for that play and the gun had to be kept under lock and key until it was absolutely needed, loaded with one round, and passed directly from the prop master to the actor. This prevented any of us idiots in the cast or crew from doing what the kid in Utah did, in theory. Not certain why I was picked as the most responsible crew member. Although it did earn me the short lived moniker of Captain Safety. I lost that title when the head flew off my hammer and through one of our drops during the set build on our next play.

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I also wonder why a prop gun would be pointed at the director and/or the director of photography and fired. Seems an odd scenario.

If they want a front shot of the actor firing the gun then the actor would be pointing the gun in the direction of the crew. That part makes sense.

Why it had live ammo does not. Same with Brandon Lee.

I mean, basic gun safety is that when you acquire a gun, especially a used one, the first thing you do is take it apart and clean it. A prop gun on a movie set should not have touched live ammo since coming into the production company’s possession, at which point it should have been thoroughly cleaned. IMO.

I hate to admit that, in true insurance professional manner, my initial reaction was: :poop:, are we on that risk?

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This is basically the plot of any number of cheap mystery novels and crime drama episodes…

But, yeah - this is a tragic accident that never should have come anywhere close to happening.

Yeah, it’s obviously workers comp for both parties. Heck, maybe Baldwin too if he needs time to emotionally recover.

Plus life, disability, and AD&D will all come into play as well. Unless it somehow comes out that the lady who was killed had subbed in the live ammo in a suicide by actor bid. Which seems unlikely. But if that did happen then no AD&D. Unless the director succumbs to his injuries.

I guess not medical, as WC should cover all of that.

Also, with major productions there is usually coverage in place covering the risk of costs incurred from delays.

I’d imagine there will also be some form of GL claim coming out of this as well.

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:ctm:

Sounds like a great ID for an alt . . .

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Sorry, I messed up moving these, so some posts may be out of order. I expect you can all follow the main thread, though.

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