COLD GUN

What is a Western movie without guns? Guns and gunfights play an important role in the Western genre. Indeed, guns were used in the movie, Up Hill All The Way, which was filmed in 1985 and released in 1986. Filming took place at Alamo Village, the first movie set in Texas that was built for John Wayne's epic movie, The Alamo.

Besides movies, commercials were filmed on the Western set that was located approximately nine miles from Bracketville, Texas, and 40 miles from Del Rio, Texas. Besides movies, commercials were filmed on the set. In addition, Alamo Village was a tourist attraction for many years too. Unfortunately, the movie set closed in 2010.

During Alamo Village's long history, one can only imagine how many times "Cold Gun," was announced on the movie set. By the way, there never was an accidental discharge of weapons at Alamo Village. At all times, the casts and crews remained safe on the movie set.

On Thursday, the 21st of October 2021, the news bulletin was unbelievable. Hearing that one person was dead and another was injured, the news was hard for me to process. It was so unthinkable!

At a movie set on Bonanza Creek Ranch, New Mexico, the tragedy took place. While rehearsing a cross-draw scene on the movie set of Rust, Alec Baldwin's gun discharged killing an up-and-rising cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and wounding the assistant director, Joel Souza.

Furthermore, before Baldwin fired the gun, a number of crew members left the set earlier that day because of grievances, pay issues, and unsafe conditions.

When the assistant director, David Halls announced, "Cold Gun," on the set, the remark means that the weapon has no live ammunition and is safe to handle. Admittedly, with the rehearsing and positioning of the camera, the scene wasn't being filmed.

In the sequence of events, Halls handed the gun to Baldwin. Then, Baldwin performed the cross-draw and pointed the gun directly at the camera when the gun went off. Discharging at close range, Baldwin's clothes were splattered with blood. Obviously, the gun wasn't "cold," leaving a tragedy in its wake.

Five days prior to the horrific tragedy, a gun was discharged on the Rust movie set on the 16th of October. It happened when Baldwin's stunt double fired a gun that was supposed to be "cold." According to crew members, two rounds were accidentally discharged.

Before Rust, Hannah Gutierrez had one film under her belt as a head armorer. Notably, Gutierrez is the daughter of an armorer, gunsmith, and stuntman, learning at an early age about the proper handling of guns from her father, Theil Reed.

Since Gutierrez was the head armorer for Rust, she set up the prop cart with the three guns. From the prop cart, assistant director Halls selected the gun, giving the gun to Baldwin. According to Halls, he only remembers checking three chambers of the cartridge.

Stressing the importance of safety meetings, prop manager, Rob Ackerman, for Saturday Night Live, feels that the meetings bring people together. Following Thursday's tragedy, Ackerman acknowledged the fact that he wasn't an expert in the area of guns. When a director for SNL wanted to fire a gun on the show, Ackerman called in a weapons specialist which was the best route to take. By slowing down the process, safety on the set was maintained. Carefully, three individuals checked and inspected the weapon before handing it off to the talent.

Recalling a movie accident from 1993, Bruce Lee's son, Brandon Lee, was killed during the filming of "The Crow." Brandon Lee was holding the grocery bag when a small explosive charge in a grocery bag was to simulate gunfire controlled by a switch. A prop gun was fired at the bag on the movie set. Did the projectile come from the grocery bag, the gun, or both? That has never been determined.

While the tragic shooting is being investigated, one question came to mind. Why were live bullets on the movie set? During the investigation, approximately 500 rounds were found to be a mixture of blanks, dummy rounds, and possibly live rounds.

Furthermore, live rounds should never be on a movie set. According to Mike Tristano, a veteran weapons specialist, hundreds of movies and tv shows have been made without live ammunition being on the sets.

Ironically, the movie Rust is a story about a teen's accidental killing of a rancher and the aftermath.

Currently, no charges have been filed in the accidental and tragic killing of Hutchins. While the evidence is being collected, the investigation is still ongoing. Subsequently, the tragedy has sparked discussions regarding movie set safety issues that need to be addressed by the state of New Mexico and the film industry.