Alec Baldwin kills crew member on set with "prop gun"

[revchuck38]

Minor note: armor said she loaded six:

“ Sometime before lunch, Reed said she armed the guns with "dummy rounds." She said that after loading the first five rounds into the gun later used by Baldwin, she had difficulty getting a sixth round in. She told investigators she "cleaned it out" and put another round in, totaling six in the chamber of the Colt .45-caliber pistol.”

Would loading five be more historically accurate? Or is that a myth?

Traditional single-action revolvers were carried with an empty chamber under the hammer due to the possibility of dropping the gun on the hammer and getting that loud, unwelcome noise. This possibility also existed with S&W DA revolvers until 1943, when a sailor dropped an M&P on the hammer and the discharge killed another sailor. S&W designed the current hammer block to take care of that.

Ruger Blackhawks were re-designed in '73(?) to incorporate a hammer block so the gun could be carried with six rounds loaded, and this was a selling point in their marketing. My OMSBH was made in '67 and I carry it with an empty chamber under the hammer.

[Jim Watson]

I don't know when the transition to 5 cartridges in a sixshooter for drop safety came about, but in the 19th century, Colt company instruction sheets described loading 6 and setting the quarter cock "safety notch." Now and for some time considered inadequate, but that wasn't the way it started out.

[JohnO]

Traditional single-action revolvers were carried with an empty chamber under the hammer due to the possibility of dropping the gun on the hammer and getting that loud, unwelcome noise.

With Baldwin's claim, "I didn't pull the trigger" then if the gun wasn't dropped who COCKED the Hammer?

I've shot single action revolvers that had triggers I swear a strong breeze could activate. Nevertheless it still required human intervention to make it go bang. So "I didn't pull the trigger" could equate to he inadvertently touched the trigger and negligently discharged the weapon. But as I mentioned previously that only occurs if the hammer is cocked.

We are supposed to give reasonable doubt to the following confluence of events? The gun, unknown to Baldwin, contained a live round in the chamber under the hammer. At the very moment Baldwin negligently pointed at the cinematographer some portion of Baldwin's movie costume managed to partially cock and release the hammer with enough force to fire the round. Or the ghost of Jesse James fired the round?

[Totem Polar]

Baldwin’s claim of not pulling the trigger pretty much defies credibility.

[4given]

Ruger Blackhawks were re-designed in '73(?) to incorporate a hammer block so the gun could be carried with six rounds loaded, and this was a selling point in their marketing. My OMSBH was made in '67 and I carry it with an empty chamber under the hammer.

Transfer bar safety on the Ruger's. Can't be fired unless the trigger is depressed. Depressing the trigger raises the transfer bar to fill a gap between the hammer and the firing pin.

Was Baldwin's pistol a Colt SAA?

[wvincent]

Baldwin’s claim of not pulling the trigger pretty much defies credibility.

You're forgetting, everything in HollyWeird is make believe-fantasy, to include their "real" persona's. (If they even had one to start with)

[YVK]

With Baldwin's claim, "I didn't pull the trigger" then if the gun wasn't dropped who COCKED the Hammer?

My question is With Baldwin's claim, "I didn't pull the trigger" then if the gun wasn't dropped who and how deCOCKED the Hammer?


If I remember correctly, the gun didn't go off on a first take. Speculation on my part, he was drawing the gun and cocking the hammer each and every time. I wonder if they are trying to come up with something around decocking the gun, which would, in a way fit, into "I didn't pull the trigger" narrative.

[TiroFijo]

This just in, Baldwin neither pointed the pistol at anyone, nor pulled the trigger. Obviously the pistol is a Decepticon, out to destroy the film industry...

[Jim Watson]

We are supposed to give reasonable doubt to the following confluence of events? The gun, unknown to Baldwin, contained a live round in the chamber under the hammer. At the very moment Baldwin negligently pointed at the cinematographer some portion of Baldwin's movie costume managed to partially cock and release the hammer with enough force to fire the round.

I was looking at that for another board.
"I dug my CAS guns out and laid a caliper alongside the hammers.
Unfortunately not including Pietta or Uberti.
The ASM engaged the quarter cock at .27" of travel, the Colt at .30" of movement.
So now the question is whether a nudge back that far will fire.
Send me a case of primers and I will try it out."

I have seen statements that the revolver in question is a Uberti with a passive safety of some sort. I have also read that it was a Pietta but that was in a news item that called it a Colt most of the time.

The Italian makers have used three or four different safety designs to meet GCA 1968 point scores and we don't know which.
I don't think the early type with a little pushrod in the quarter cock notch tipping out a hammer block would have an effect on a nudged hammer spur. I have never seen anybody engage the Swiss Safe two-notch basepin, it is very awkward and there only to garner BATF points. I don't know what the present "disappearing firing pin" would do in that circumstance. I think there are other designs but am not up on them at all.

There is somewhere a video of a Gun Expert holding up a Just Like Revolver and pontificating.

Oh, yeah, we must also consider the (faint) possibility that he was handed the gun in a false half cock condition. It wouldn't take much to set it off, but it is hard to get to on purpose and very unlikely to happen by accident.

[Ed L]

If he didn’t pull the trigger why did it take him two months to say so? I would think that would’ve been the first words out of his mouth if the gun went off without him pulling the trigger when the event occurred.