Baldwin and Blanks

In my experience as a weapons instructor and professional firearms user of several decades the three groups who tend to know the least about firearms safety are actors, politicians and journalists. I am reminded of this every time I watch a film or TV show where a gun rattles as it’s pointed at someone (guns don’t rattle) or the safety switch on a Glock is clicked (Glocks don’t have one).

Perhaps the worst Hollywood gun trope is the “Sabrina” - the pose named after a Charlie’s Angel where the actor, usually about to bust through a door points the gun straight up, adjacent to their face.

The photographic reason for this is to frame the gun and the actor in the same photo. The firearms safety problem with it is that they’re effectively pointing the gun at their own face. Typically with their finger on the trigger as well. When teaching new students one of the first things a firearms instructor will often do is tell them to forget everything they’ve ever seen on screen.

Huffington Post journalist Ryan Reilly, while covering the Ferguson riots in America asked his Twitter followers: “I believe these are rubber bullets, can anyone confirm?”. Adjacent was a photo, not of rubber bullets at all but orange foam earplugs.

Politicians repeatedly embarrass themselves making comments about firearms when they don’t understand the subject. Democrats Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy introduced a ban on firearms with “Barrel shrouds”. These are a thin piece of metal which stops someone burning their hand on a hot rifle barrel, like the heat shield on a motorbike exhaust pipe. Scary stuff. When asked on TV what a barrel shroud actually was, she said it’s a “Shoulder thing that goes up”. Ms McCarthy was presumably trying to ban the shoulder-mounted alien plasma weapon from the Predator films.

Closer to home, draft legislation for security industry firearms regulations at one stage mandated that security guards report to police within 24 hours every time they removed the firearm from its holster. Nobody in government realised that security guards do this at the end of every single shift. There would have been a long queue daily at the cop shop.

NSW Police Minister David Elliott released a PR photo of himself shooting an automatic weapon which he held, not by its handle but by the magazine.

Mind you he did this while under the supervision of a firearms safety officer’ rather like Alec Baldwin was just before he killed someone. At least Minister Elliott was pointing the weapon in a safe direction. Baldwin wasn’t. Which is a mistake anyone given even the most basic firearms safety training would recognise.

There are four ‘golden’ rules of firearms handling. These are:

1. Treat all guns as loaded. When someone hands you a gun and says “It’s safe", it isn’t. Like the one Baldwin was carrying.
2. Never let the muzzle of the weapon cross anything you’re not prepared to shoot. Like say a coworker on a film set.
3. When you are off target, your finger must be off the trigger. An accompanying photo in the News article of a so-called “Prop gun” showed the person’s finger on the trigger when it was obviously not pointed at a target. Another basic safety violation.
4. Be aware of what’s between you and your target as well as beyond your target. Such as a cinematographer and a director.

A typically outspoken celebrity injecting himself into politics, Baldwin has been hugely critical of the National Rifle Association. He’s entitled to his views of course, but had he attended a mandatory NRA safety training course there is a very, very good chance cinematographer Halyna Hutchins would not have had a loaded firearm pointed at her and the trigger pulled shooting her and the person behind her. A violation of each and every single one of the four golden safety rules of firearms handling.

Various articles on the Alec Baldwin shooting had an Instagram picture of Hannah Gutierrez Reed, said to be the firearms handler posing for the camera in exactly a way that makes most firearms professionals wince.

The first time I ever touched a firearm I was in Year Seven at my high school rifle club. Had I so much as dared point the weapon a few degrees off target I’d have had Mr Blinkhorne’s boot up my butt faster than a bullet. Having had early exposure and training to firearms I’ve respected the weapons ever since. I remember the first time I ever wore a pistol. I could literally smell it, feel its weight and understand the responsibility that came with it.

To this day my awareness of other people's "muzzle discipline" is such that I feel uncomfortable when even a bright yellow toy water pistol is pointed in my direction.

That’s the essence of weapons safety training and why everyone - even the most anti-gun zealot, could benefit from it.

Alas we live in a world where people who’ve no expertise whatsoever feel obliged to loudly offer their opinion via social media on subjects about which they know very little. Worse, this becomes media and political commentary.

So between sloppy weapons handlers, clueless actors and ignorant reportage of this terrible incident it is very likely nothing much will change from a safety standpoint but many clueless words will be written. Particularly on Twitter where they're already dividing along party lines. Baldwin is the real victim here, according to some. Seriously.

My advice to these pontificators would be this. If you’ve never held a firearm or been trained in its safe handling, stay out of any debate. First, do some research on firearms safety or even try a course. Think of it like your mother making you eat vegetables as a kid. You might learn a thing or two that could save your life or someone else. If nothing else it will help you hate Hollywood blockbusters just that little bit more. And we could all benefit from that.

Daniel Lewkovitz is a security expert and the CEO of Calamity.