At 24, Reed did not have much experience doing this. “Rust” was only her second film as lead armorer — and as details of the shooting emerge, many in the film industry have questioned her hiring; the shooting came just hours after the crew walked off the set, citing safety complaints and misfires.
On that day, according to the Santa Fe County County Sheriff’s Office search warrant affidavit obtained by the Associated Press, Reed prepared the three prop guns that were to be used in a scene by Baldwin. Assistant director Dave Halls grabbed one of those guns and handed it to Baldwin before the accident occurred, the affidavit said.
Peer of ‘Rust’ gun handler expresses shock: ‘I’m surprised any of this happened on her watch’
This is purely speculation on my part, so take it with the proverbial pound of salt.
I am an NRA certified Safety Officer and I was an IDPA Safety Officer for more than a decade. Your mission is simple: Make sure guns go off safely and the shooters and spectators go home with the same amount of blood they came in and no extra holes in them. You do that by not compromising the safety rules at all even if you are called names like asshole. In fact, the ability of being an asshole when needed is desired.
If I am a safety officer and I have people that have never shot with me, I will say words to the effect that I will not fuck around with safety and that I don’t care if you like me or not at the end of the day: You will be safe and act safely or you leave the range. Period.
How does that apply to Hannah Gutierrez Reed and the deadly shooting in Rust? Again, I am speculating, but I would not be surprised a bit if she was star-struck by the job and the actors.
Most everybody wants to be liked or at least not considered meanies and that goes double if we meet somebody that makes us giggle and “squee” in celebrity palsy. We will relax our rules (sometimes unconsciously) so the objects of our admiration take a shine on us. Again, that is normal and even accepted behavior, but a deadly unacceptable one when it comes to gun safety.
There was a regular sanctioned IDPA match in a Southern State which I participated as Safety Office because it was a big deal and a feather for your S.O. cap. As expected, some of the “celebrity” shooters wearing them full sponsorship shirts, attended and the Match Director/Owner was making certain they had a good time. Without going into details, let’s say that some hard calls were made by our stage’s lead S.O. and the Match Director/Owner took affront to the point of engaging in a shouting match with the lead S.O. and reversing his safety violation DQ call for a sweep with a loaded firearm.
That was the first and last time I ever attended that “super match” even as a plain shooter. I simply could not afford the responsibility of an injury nor being the recipient of one because the Match Director/Owner wanted to share beers and take selfies after the match with sponsored shooters.
If you have been involved in gun safety with live firearms, you know this well. You have been the recipient of anything from cute girls giggling and batting eyes to the Chest Thumper issuing veiled threats so you relax the rules and let them color outside the lines. And if you are any decent about our job, you went home with a full collection of insults, mainly among them is the word asshole. The funny part is that we take the word as a badge of honor and not an insult because it meant we curbed some unsafe idiot from doing stupid shit.
So I believe Ms. Reed, young as she is, may have been influenced by being around the Tinsel Town glitterati and also the prospect of drumming more business for the future. If you are not liked in Hollywood, you don’t get called even if you are the pinnacle of safety and make a movie look good. It is high-priced high-school behavior from the Dancing Monkeys.
Again, it is my opinion on just one of the many bad things that lead to an unnecessary death.
Hat Tip T Snabe
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