Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was the armorer on the film "Rust," was also charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
100% deserved, since she was directly responsible for putting a loaded gun in Alec Baldwin's hand when it was literally her job to make sure that could not happen.
lawyer: "Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun – or anywhere on the movie set. He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds."
It's true that Alec Baldwin didn't know. Now let's apply that to the law:
NM Stat § 30-2-3 (2019) B. Involuntary manslaughter consists of manslaughter committed in the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to felony, or in the commission of a lawful act which might produce death in an unlawful manner or without due caution and circumspection.
Even if Alec Baldwin did not know there were live rounds in the gun, it was a possibility that the gun might be in some way dangerous (such as with Brandon Lee's death), so it was negligent for him to aim the gun directly at the woman and pull the trigger, particularly when the scene did not call for him to do anything of that nature. Basic caution and safety would demand that he at least point the gun in a slightly different direction, not directly at another person, when firing it. Alec Baldwin also did not check the gun himself before firing it while aiming directly at another human being.
The charges are justified. involuntary manslaughter doesn't require knowledge or intent, it is effectively negligent homicide.
Never point a weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot.
Keep your weapon on safe until you intend to shoot.
Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire.
If you break three of the four rules, the worst you're going to get is an ass-chewing.
You have to break all four at the same time to harm anyone inadvertently.
And yet still, there are homicides every fucking day because people couldn't be bothered to handle weapons safely.
#1 covers everything. If you assume a weapon is loaded until you have verified it is not, you cannot accidentally shoot anyone.
#2 covers everything. If the weapon is not pointed at anything other than the ground, you cannot shoot anyone.
#3 covers everything assuming the safety mechanism(s) actually work. Even if you're acting like a damned fool, and pointing a firearm in an unsafe direction, if the weapon mechanically cannot fire, the worst you're going to do is commit assault by pointing.
#4 covers everything, assuming the firearm cannot fire itself and requires the trigger to be pulled.
Sometimes, there's a #5 - know your target and what lies beyond it - which might have helped the survivor in this case, but it really only applies to when you intend to fire, unlike the first four, which are there to make sure every discharge of a firearm is intended, #5 is there to make sure every discharge has the intended consequences.
100% deserved, since she was directly responsible for putting a loaded gun in Alec Baldwin's hand when it was literally her job to make sure that could not happen.
It's true that Alec Baldwin didn't know. Now let's apply that to the law:
Even if Alec Baldwin did not know there were live rounds in the gun, it was a possibility that the gun might be in some way dangerous (such as with Brandon Lee's death), so it was negligent for him to aim the gun directly at the woman and pull the trigger, particularly when the scene did not call for him to do anything of that nature. Basic caution and safety would demand that he at least point the gun in a slightly different direction, not directly at another person, when firing it. Alec Baldwin also did not check the gun himself before firing it while aiming directly at another human being.
The charges are justified. involuntary manslaughter doesn't require knowledge or intent, it is effectively negligent homicide.
Rule number fucking two of basic firearm safety: Don't point at anything you don't intend to destroy.
How about rule one, treat every gun like it's loaded?
That's the point of the rules. They overlap.
If you break three of the four rules, the worst you're going to get is an ass-chewing.
You have to break all four at the same time to harm anyone inadvertently.
And yet still, there are homicides every fucking day because people couldn't be bothered to handle weapons safely.
#1 covers everything. If you assume a weapon is loaded until you have verified it is not, you cannot accidentally shoot anyone.
#2 covers everything. If the weapon is not pointed at anything other than the ground, you cannot shoot anyone.
#3 covers everything assuming the safety mechanism(s) actually work. Even if you're acting like a damned fool, and pointing a firearm in an unsafe direction, if the weapon mechanically cannot fire, the worst you're going to do is commit assault by pointing.
#4 covers everything, assuming the firearm cannot fire itself and requires the trigger to be pulled.
Sometimes, there's a #5 - know your target and what lies beyond it - which might have helped the survivor in this case, but it really only applies to when you intend to fire, unlike the first four, which are there to make sure every discharge of a firearm is intended, #5 is there to make sure every discharge has the intended consequences.