There are lots of lessons to be learned from Alec Baldwin’s discharge of a firearm on the New Mexico set of the movie “Rust” last week, but “we need more gun control laws” isn’t one of them. A refresher course on actual gun handling and the four rules of gun safety? Absolutely. A reminder to check your firearm to make sure it isn’t loaded, even if someone hands it to you and tells you it’s not? I’m on board with that. But trying to tie in the negligence on display in Santa Fe that led to the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding of director Joel Souza to a demand for new gun laws is simply pathetic, and The Week columnist Joel Mathis should be embarrassed by his attempt to promote his anti-gun ideology by tying it to Hutchins’ death.
On Friday, producers of the ABC show The Rookie announced the series will no longer use live guns on set, instead opting to add in muzzle flashes and other special effects using CGI. “The safety of our cast and crew is too important,” showrunner Alexi Hawley wrote. “Any risk is too much risk.” Other TV and movie productions may follow suit. “There’s no reason to have guns loaded with blanks or anything on set anymore,” Craig Zobel, the director of Mare of Easttown, wrote on Twitter. “Should just be fully outlawed. There’s computers now.”
A single, apparently accidental death has caused the entertainment industry to rethink its firearms practices — to question its priorities and rules, the way it does business. Things are already starting to change.
If only we could do the same for the many Americans who die of gun violence every day, on the streets and in their own homes.