If Alec Baldwin wasn’t so anti-gun, he wouldn’t be on trial for killing someone with a gun
Like Most Liberal Activists He Thought Guns Killed People - He Then Found Out People Kill People. His lack of respect for firearms had deadly results.
Alec Baldwin’s manslaughter trial began this week in New Mexico. It is a historic trial of a Hollywood actor for a death that occurred on a set. Unlike other recent “historic” trials this one has a clearly defined crime and an actual victim.
It’s been almost three years since Alec Baldwin pointed a gun and accidentally shot and killed Director Halyna Hutchins while filming a western. Apparently he is going to deny pulling the trigger, claiming the gun went off because of a malfunction. But all agree Baldwin pointed the gun at Hutchins before it went off and killed her.
At this point I should declare that Baldwin and I have a… ahem… “history.” Back in 2013 after we had made the very successful FrackNation documentary, which was an answer to the lies of the anti-fracking Gasland, the Hamptons International Film Festival thought it would be interesting to have a debate on the relevant topic and invited me on to the panel. I was kinda looking forward to not quite summering in the Hamptons, but at least spending a few summer days there.
Then Alec Baldwin, who apparently was on the board of the film festival, decided that he didn’t want a debate with someone who knew what they were talking about. So he fired me from the panel and on a Friday night sent abusive tweets in my direction. As the presumably boozy night progressed they became increasingly abusive. He described me as a “lumpy old gas whore” and a “dreadful filmmaker”, and a “tired old bullshitter”. Apart from that I think he liked me, and apart from that I think I can write about him objectively.
So whilst Baldwin clearly didn’t mean to kill Halyna Hutchins, it’s worth pondering the connection between hating guns and careless firearm safety.
You see, Baldwin really hates guns. He’s one of those anti-NRA celebrities who thinks there wouldn’t be gun crime if guns were illegal, ignoring the fact that most gun crime comes from people carrying illegal guns. Back in 2018 he signed a letter with a bunch of other Hollywood A-listers threatening to destroy the NRA because they blamed the organization for the Parkland school shooting that killed 17 students.
The letter he signed said, “We’re going to shine a bright light on what you and your organization do to America. We’re going to make sure the whole world sees your bloody hands. We’re coming for your money. We’re coming for your puppets. And we’re going to win."
NoRA (No Rifle Association), the organization that sent that letter, is no longer active. The NRA is.
Baldwin attacked NRA spokeswoman and my friend Dana Loesch in a tweet, saying she “doesn’t care how many dead bodies she has to step over” and that the Second Amendment “needs to be rethought.” For the record, Dana is the nicest human being you could ever hope to meet, and is such a Christian that I have no doubt she regularly includes Alec Baldwin in her prayers.
So he really doesn’t like guns. It seems like he sees guns as these evil, autonomous things that kill all by themselves.
If this is true, then maybe it’s no surprise that he never listened very closely to gun safety lessons. He’s a good, liberal guy with all the correct beliefs, right? In his hands, a gun would never hurt someone. But the gun doesn’t care, and someone died because of his negligence. If he had realized a gun pointed at a person doesn’t care who is holding it. All that matters is what that person does.
That’s part of the case New Mexico prosecutors are bringing against Baldwin. Their case rests on his carelessness – that you can’t ever treat a gun like anything but a gun.
And if Alec Baldwin had respected guns and listened to gun safety instructions he would have known that you never, never point a gun at another person. Even if you think it is unloaded. You just don’t know. And as Alec Baldwin found out, a mistake with a gun can be deadly.
The trial continues
I watched a lot of the first trial. It was pretty obvious that AB had only the sketchiest understanding of how an SAA revolver and its clones operate. Alas, the jury members seem to have been at least as ignorant but they weren't tasked with handling one. The testimony that AB did not attend safety meetings, was on his phone during the ones he did attend and generally behaved like the "Big Man" on the set to anyone who dared criticize him just cements the impression that he did not take gun safety with the seriousness that deadly weapons demand. He was the Executive Producer of "Rust". Ultimately everything that happened on the set is his responsibility.
Couldn't agree more. Sadly--tragically--it is so obvious that his deep ignorance of guns and gun safety, and contempt for the subject of gun rights, enabled him to do what he did and then maintain a complete state of denial about it. And his outsize ego was certainly on display in the Hamptons!