Darkside wrote:
The point is that if the rules are followed each and every time no matter how sure you are someone else did it for you and did it correctly, no one gets hurt. And people that don't follow the basic rules to me stick out like a sore thumb and thus have no credibility on the issue. "I didn't know it was loaded" is probably the stupidest thing any human being can possibly say. Seriously.
Well, the point at least in regards to Alec Baldwin, is that in the context of his job as an actor he has to point guns in the direction of people. If a gun that is checked by everyone is still way too dangerous to point at another person then can we really blame him when he is doing his job in pointing it in the general direction of people ends up killing someone? This isn't someone coming to his house and he is waving a gun around and it goes off and kills someone. Every actor that uses guns has to violate the very rule that was so important that a gun everyone knew in court had no bullets in it went nuts about.
Again, you are a very experienced gun owner. If you checked the gun and verified it was completely empty of things that could kill me, and then I checked the gun and verified it was completely empty of things that could kill me, it would still be too dangerous for you, a very experienced gun owner, to point it in my general direction. I'm not saying it's a bad rule. It makes sense. But in terms of an actor that not only at some point needs to point a gun at another actor, but also has a bunch of people standing around as they film a movie, can we really put the blame on the actor that was under the impression not only was the gun not loaded but bullets aren't even anywhere on the set.
The context of this sidebar was the "expert" on the witness stand, not Baldwin. The point being, when anyone hands you or you handle any gun, you must physically inspect it or cycle the action to ensure its safety. If an expert is on the stand and doesn't follow those rules it's hard to believe in his credentials.
Of course an actor will break the rules on stage or on set.