Recently, on the set of the film “Rust,” actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. The incident was reported to have been an accident. However, there have been questions around how a prop gun was able to take someone’s life.
According to BBC News, “Blanks are used in the film industry to imitate live ammunition. The reason they are so convincing is that blanks are essentially modified real bullets. While the term “bullet” is commonly used to describe what is loaded into weapons, more properly it is a cartridge that is loaded: a self-contained ammunition package made up of a casing holding an explosive powder that when fired, blasts out a projectile, or bullet. Blanks differ because although they use explosives, they don’t use a projectile.”
In the case with Baldwin, the court was given evidence showing the assistant director of the film handing the gun to Baldwin and indicating that the gun was unloaded by stating “cold gun.” Unfortunately, the gun was indeed loaded, and investigations are still ongoing.
Blanks contain real gunpowder and though these instances are rare, even prop guns can be incredibly dangerous, particularly when using blanks. There are, however, many options on how to operate prop guns safely. Mike Tristano, an armorer, said to NBC News that ““If you are in the line of fire, you would have a face mask, you would have goggles, you would stand behind a Perspex screen and you would minimize the number of people by the camera.”
These kinds of incidents have happened in the past before. Brandon Lee, son of famous martial arts professional and actor Bruce Lee, died at 28-year-old at the hands of a prop gun which unknowingly had a dummy round loaded and was fired at him during filming of a scene. Even in this case Lee was killed by the force of the blast, not by a projectile.
According to BBC news, film sets generally have strict rules in regard to the use of prop weapons including but not limited to never pointing a loaded or unloaded gun at someone. Many film professionals believe that with today’s editing technology, blanks or operating prop guns shouldn’t be used on sets anymore.
BBC News quoted Craig Zobel, an actor and director, tweeting, “There’s no reason to have guns loaded with blanks or anything on set anymore. Should just be fully outlawed.”
