UnSubRocky wrote on Oct 28
th, 2021 at 8:11pm:
SadKangaroo wrote on Oct 27
th, 2021 at 4:00pm:
That "duty of care" is unworkable, at least here.
Occupational health and safety, in relation to firearms, would mean that someone holding the firearm has a "duty of care" to make sure the weapon is used in a safe manner.
Hypothetical scenario 1: Imagine if you had a pistol in your hand and you walked around town with the firearm. Oh, the pistol is not loaded. But you like to carry the pistol around because you like guns. The police get called to attend a person waving around a pistol in public. The police show up and point their guns at you, demanding that you put the gun down. You wave the gun around, claiming that it is not loaded and that your duty of care is unworkable, at least here. The police shoot you, thinking that the taser option is not feasible. They handcuff you and you get your medical care as soon as possible. The police determine that the pistol you were holding was actually not loaded. It does not change the fact that you are breaking the law/acting reckless.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-28/police-speak-alec-baldwin-shooting-rust-h...We have a situation here where the actor, Alec Baldwin, was given a gun that he claims to be "cold" (safe). Irrelevant that the actor was told that the gun was safe to use, in terms of Mr Baldwin was still in possession of a weapon that could fire live rounds. Mr Baldwin should have checked to see if there were rounds in the gun. And then he should have used the weapon in a safe manner.
It was an actor on a film set, not someone trying suicide by police.
I'm not saying Baldwin is blameless, I'm just pointing out that the situation is not as black and white and you're painting it and in the real world, there is someone whose sole responsibility is the manage and maintain all aspects of these weapons including their safety on set.
If that was you, the armourer, since you like hypotheticals, and you've done your job, checked the weapon, announced that it's cold and then handed the weapon to the actor and they then attempt to check the gun how can you be sure they haven't then loaded a bullet?
If they have and it's discharged, that's on you.
Or what if they don't deliberately load anything but because they're an actor and not a weapons expert, what if part of their wardrobe gets stuck in the barrel without them even realising and when they fire their blank during filming it kills someone by launching the metal stud into their head, all because the actor thought they knew better than you.
That all become your responsibility.
See in the real world, the armourer would not let the guns out of their site and if it's a bigger production with multiple weapons firing blanks there is actually a team of people, not just a single person.
Again, here in Aus, the moment an actor attempts to tamper with the gun (remove or check the ammunition etc) or looks down the barrel, everything stops and the armourer steps in, confiscating the weapons and either checking them again, or in the case of an actor aiming the weapon at a person or themselves, they're ejected from the set (depending on their billing).
None of that was happening in this case sadly. I'm not entirely sure they care this much in the US because of their crazy gun culture, but not only was it not the armourer who gave Baldwin the gun, telling him that it was "cold" but that same gun was used for target practice earlier in the day with live rounds, a massive no-no on a film set (again, at least here).
The actor's job is to act, not to think they know better than the armourer.
You're just not being realistic. You're acting as if your hours in video games would enable you to pick up a gun and check not only that it's loaded correctly, what type of ammo is in there, how to engage the safety etc, all without blowing your own head off.
I own multiple rifles and while it's trivially easy to get the license here in QLD (the people who failed the test when I took mine were given the answers and allowed to take the test again 15minutes later) it doesn't mean you know what you're doing.
I've been around any actors before, I wouldn't want them to hold any responsibility with a firearms check whatsoever.