She was the armorer on the set of "Rust." News report just came out that she got an 18 Months sentence in the NM slammer. ‘Rust’ shooting: Movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed sentenced to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter | CNN

Plenty of blame to go around. Let see what happens to the other defendants!-

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

Well, as a newly minted felon she won't be handling firearms
again.

And Famous VIP Alec, who pointed the gun at living humans and pulled the trigger without first checking the gun and ammo?

Let's see if Equal Justice exists and is blind, or whether some animals are more equal than others.

As little as I think of Baldwin and despite my inclination to favor Thell Reed's daughter, she probably IS the most culpable in this tragic event. And I still say that WE know what we are doing, Hollywood is a bunch of idiots who think that their feces is beneficently fragrant, and Baldwin isn't even as smart as Hollywood in general.

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Formerly Model520Fan

Setting the stage with a scapegoat.

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Bill

I dislike Baldwin as much as anyone here, but if you can get past that (it is very difficult for me), and get past his lying excuses, he is not the root cause of the incident, given his stupid reliance on Hollywood ways of doing things, rather than long-established American (and probably most foreign) tradition.

It was not improper to blame Hannah Reed for the mishap. It may not be improper to blame some others.

My own opinion, certainly not the last word, is that Hollywood rules should be trashed and standard American rules re-instituted, regardless of the effect on motion pictures (minimal, in my educated opinion). But it is hard to avoid the fact that Reed did not even function properly within the Hollywood rules. I wonder who else was involved in that.

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Formerly Model520Fan

I think we all know the answer on that one, based on events over the last 15 years.

Not that I have followed the case that closely, but the woman just convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison was the armorer on the set, the professional employed to be responsible for the weapons and their safe use.

Live rounds were found mixed with dummy rounds. (Early reports, not sure if they were accurate, even had people on the set plinking with live ammo.) A juror in the CNN link above says that she, the armorer, did not even check the ammo to ensure its safety.

A woman is dead as a result.

Eighteen months sounds like a pretty light sentence to me.

Hopefully everyone on this forum knows that the individual holding the gun is ultimately responsible for its safe use. We all know this as gun enthusiasts.

Still, would any of us consider ourselves not responsible if a house guest accessed a loaded gun of ours that we'd left accessible and out of ignorance or carelessness (or malice, for that matter) shot to death another guest?

I think not.

I saw the news clip of the judge's comments as she pronounced the sentence. It appears that Ms. Reed was her own worst enemy according to the many comments that she made after the incident and all the way up to and after the trial. The judge took Reed's attitude and statements into consideration and gave her the maximum time behind bars.

Plenty of blame to go around regarding the tragedy. The one guy who got off scott free was the one who actually handed the gun to Baldwin. He was certainly part of the perfect storm that occurred. Now let's see just how culpable that Baldwin is.

I understand that the Screen Actors Guild is paying for his lawyers ? Not sure just how accurate that is but one way or another he's certainly going to have better representation than Ms. Reed did.

Money talks and the armorer walks (with leg shackles)

Still want to know how the live rounds got on set. Somebody is responsible for that.

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Some collect art; I shoot it!

So let's tell Hollywood that if they want to make movies with guns, all the actors involved need to be trained and certified proficient with firearms. That'll fix the issue.

(Pause for most here to crack ribs with laughter, and half of Hollywood to stroke out in indignation)

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Release the Kraken

Can anyone here translate "18 month sentence" to "months actually spent behind bars"?

My guess is that the latter will be in the low single digits.

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You're shy a few manners.

Absolutely ridiculous.

Now do Alec Garbage Baldwin. He deserves 8 to 10 for manslaughter for being the trigger man.

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Go ahead... make my day.

She was the armorer, responsible for firearms and their “condition” on set. Allowing “downtime recreational shooting” with live ammo and later allowing said firearms/ammo uncontrolled unchecked is negligent. Thell never would have let that happen. Then again he would have slapped Baldwin upside his head for him having his finger on the trigger with thumb on a full cocked hammer. Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

His trail starts in July. Will be interesting.

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No baby we aint

Baldwin was given a "cold" gun.
That will be his defense which
will gain a "not guilty" verdict.

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Ubi Est Mea

Movie guns exist to point at people. That's why someone has an entire job of making sure it is safe to do so. And it is why the rules of gun safety wouldn't work. It's also why movie production rules include, "No live ammo anywhere on the set." That's one of their primary rules.

Baldwin was a dumbass. But he wasn't a perp.

The whole media buzz is nothing more then get out of jail free card.

The court let Halls go, the person who declared the gun to inert/non dangerous. Yet by SET RULES Halls was the person who had final say on ammunition and firearms after the armourer did. And technically had the ability and power to veto any decision made by the Armourer.

Then came the actor... who should have looked.

The funny thing is, that in 2023 several videos were released by the Baldwin team showing him to "be over eager on firearms safety on set of his movie". In one of the videos i saw, he was rolling around on the ground with a 100% fake plastic prop gun in hand, and when he rolled across a group of people "flagging them", he yelled cut and started screaming at them not to be in front of "a gun".

Its shocking that the defense team did not bring up any mention of the death of Brandon Lee on set of The Crow

The Crow (1994 film - Wikipedia)

In some ways, its ALMOST a word for word repeat of what happend on The Crow, and on the set of Rust. The ONLY difference is that Lee was killed by an actor who happened to be his fiancees immediately preceeding boyfriend.. and somehow it was "accidental" despite the film crew shenanigans behind the ammunition, and the fact that the actor who killed Lee had been rather angry about being upset and was apparently stalking the fiancee before the movie started filming.

Baldwin will skate, mark my words. Hollywood will see to that. just my 2 cents. I believe Charlton Heston is turning over right now.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Per an actual trial lawyer who researched NM law, there's case law that says it doesn't matter who loaded the gun. If death resulted, the person holding the gun has committed manslaughter.

Now, let's see if the prosecutor did their due diligence law research and follows the law.

If she got 18 months and didn’t pull the trigger, Baldwin must be sweating a little.

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213th FBINA

Unfortunately it takes accidents, calamities, tragedies, disasters for some people to understand that safety is not a laughing matter, that people who are safety conscious are not fudds and wimps, have no sense of adventure, aren't willing to take risks...

Absolutely deserved. It was her negligence that contributed to this tragedy.

At the same time, Baldwin's negligence also led to this tragedy. It's not looking good for him. If he tries to scapegoat her, then the prosecution can come back and say that he was the one who hired her, trying to do his movie on the cheap. Fact remains, he pointed the pistol at Ms. Hutchens, and he pulled the trigger. If he says that he was trusting Reed, then all the more fool him.

She was found guilty of negligent homicide, and hoping the same for him.

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Only a cold warrior

I just don’t see a forum approved fund raiser being set up to help Alec Baldwin with his ongoing legal expenses.

Baldwin certainly did not arrive on set that day with the intention of causing injury or death to anyone.

Every time the Rust shooting comes up on forums it is interesting to see

1. People who understand that the 4 rules of Gun Safety are not totally applicable to firearms handling on a movie set.

2. People who can't get past Alec Baldwin and think the 4 Rules and safe gun handling are exactly the same on a movie set...they're not

I disagree with this at least to a degree.

My understanding was that Alec Baldwin was in overall charge of that set.

He should have been aware that people were bringing live ammunition on to that set that never should have been there.

He should have forbidden it and he should have taken steps to make sure that he was obeyed in that.

In that respect he was 100% accountable.

Having said all that, I think I said this elsewhere but even though most of us here would never pick up a firearm without ensuring that it was unloaded I don't think Alec Baldwin knows enough about guns to think to do something like that.

In his world a gun is something that one of "the little people" hands him right before the director says "Action".

I gripe a lot about John Wayne's gun handling in movies but he knew those guns were unloaded. He was used to working around unloaded guns. That's why he didn't have any problem waving it in somebody's face or using it as a pointer (El Dorado).

Alec Baldwin's the same way I think.

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Retired Career Security Guard

When Ya gots the money, Ya usually walks.

It's pretty clear that she was not well trained or competent to do the job of armorer. She got the job based on her daddy's reputation and was in over her head.

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The world is a very strange banana, but the monkey is not worried at all...

But then there was the time he and Ward Bond were
out bird hunting and while climbing a fence he shot
Bond in the butt with his shotgun. REAL gun handling.

The shotgun actually belonged to Bond. And in Bond's
will he bequeathed the firearm to Wayne.

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Ubi Est Mea

Agreed, thus he appears to be charged appropriately, from what is publicly known. Here's the applicable New Mexico statute:

New Mexico Statutes Chapter 30. Criminal Offenses § 30-2-3. Manslaughter

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

How did the Hall guy get off scot free though?

IIRC, he made an agreement for his testimony.

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NHI, 10-8.

Not exactly "scot free . . . "

US judge approves Rust assistant director’s plea deal over fatal shooting | Rust film set shooting | The Guardian

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Not a realistic appraisal, He was more quilty then the armourer was. After all he delibirately chose to fail to inspect the pistol and declared it safe to use.

The thing is that EVERYONE in the media is failing to recognize the main, basic problem behind the entire fiasco.

Why where they using real, live firing weapons on a movie set? Any time i go to look at "prop weapons", they are either blank firing only, using special blanks that cant interchange with REAL ammunition, or non functional replicas that have fake, solid plastic ammunition for them.

Look up Baldwins career. He has at least a dozen movies where he was doing nothing but using weapons the entire movie. Something called Miami Heat comes to mind.

She hung herself with many of the smart mouthed comments she made. She'd have probably been better off just letting her mouthpiece do the talking. Some of her comments likely convinced the jury she was an indifferent and inept individual who shouldn't have been in the job she had.

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The Last Standing Knight

There's an old adage in the justice system that the first to plead guilty in a group of codefendants then controls the narrative. They also get the best deal.

Also, I'm guessing you mean "Miami Blues?"

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

It seems to me that Smoke is correct that Baldwin is heavily responsible for having hired and failed to supervise his armorer.

It also seems to me that Hollywood needs to follow the four rules. It is NOT impossible to make motion pictures while following the four rules. It may be a bit of a handicap, but not much. Before you post your disagreement, ask yourself how many motion pictures you've edited.

Your attention is also invited to post #23, although some (Baldwin's lawyers, for sure) will claim that it does not apply here.

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Formerly Model520Fan

I've never heard that story before. And I don't know what happened and I really don't know all that much about John Wayne.

I would hope he would have a different mindset off set with a known loaded gun.

When I was in the Army the only time my M16 was ever loaded was on the firing line, after I was told to lock and load one 20 round magazine and watch my lane.

When I had to carry it in the field there was never an emphasis on safe firearms handling. In fact, at NTC they issued me a BFA and blanks and a MILES unit and expected me to point a gun at people and pretend to shoot them.

I believe when you're in an environment where you know the guns aren't loaded sooner or later you start ignoring the rules.

Even when I put my gun on my dresser at night I make a specific point of pointing it in a safe direction because I know it's loaded and I know I have a neighbor sleeping on the other side of my bedroom wall. That's not a consideration I ever had with my M16 in the Army.

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Retired Career Security Guard

I've talked about this before (at my age I've talked about everything before).

Back when the TV show Rookie Blue was on the air I got a chance to correspond with one of the producers about firearm safety in television.

He told me that in Canada the rules are the set armorer has control of all firearms at all times, and unless they're actually being used in a scene they are kept under lock and key.

He said in any scene where one actor is pointing a gun at another the gun is brought to the set by the armor and the person who's going to be holding the gun and the person who is going to be "shot" with the gun all verify that the gun is not loaded.

Then the gun is pointed in a safe direction and "fired" as a final verification that there's no ammunition in the gun. He said that was the reason that a lot of times you'll see an actor pointing an SAO gun at somebody and the hammer is down. Because nobody thinks to re cock the hammer after they do that safety "firing".

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Retired Career Security Guard

... for the shooting, which clearly was an accident, they need to nail him and the other producers responsible for criminal negligent creation a dangerous work environment.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Wasn't the victim's husband a big time tort lawyer? Would be surprising if he didn't go after Baldwin for a few billion to compensate for his negligence.