Hollywood and the NRA Should Date
On the set of the film Rust in New Mexico, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed when a “prop gun” held by actor Alec Baldwin “accidentally misfired”. Joel Souza, the director, was also hit and injured — although he was discharged from the hospital shortly after. Unintentional shootings on film sets have happened before, yet mistakes are still being made. So what is the solution, you ask? Imagine this hot take: Instead of #CancelingGuns and protesting their existence, what if Hollywood learned to embrace organizations that are dedicated to the ownership of guns? When one opposes guns, they are often uneducated on the importance of gun safety. Hollywood and guns are pitted against each other, but there is a world where the forces can unite to avoid danger. In order to reach that point, though, here is what you must know:
This was NOT a “misfire”, as it has been reported again and again. A misfire is a failure of the priming mixture to be initiated after the primer (or rim of a rimfire case) has been struck an adequate blow by the firing pin, or the failure of the initiated primer to ignite the powder. This term is also commonly used to refer to a failure to fire caused by an insufficient hit on the primer. In simpler terms, a misfire is a total failure of a cartridge to fire when the trigger is pulled and the hammer or firing pin falls. To attribute the Rust shooting to a misfire is indisputably an incorrect use of the term. When enough mistakes involving the employment of guns have already been made, it is not a good look on production, media outlets, or those involved to continually display ignorance.
This was NOT an “accident”. An accident is defined as “an event that is without apparent or deliberate cause.” The gun was passed through the hands of at least three individuals who all were expected to check the safety of the weapon — one of which was assistant director Dave Halls. According to an affidavit signed by Detective Alexandria Hancock of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office, he admitted to not checking all of the gun chambers (or any of them for that matter) which is a part of his job description. Independent films, like the one Baldwin is working on, don't even have to hire union crews. Thus, 24-year-old head armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s only formal training came from her father. Yes — I said the head armorer, whose duty is to oversee all gun operations, has no official license or education. Hence, live ammunition entered the gun instead of a blank. The complete lack of caution when dealing with a deadly weapon makes this no accident. Rather, it is the result of pure heedlessness. A physical bullet ending up inside a very real gun is not a forgivable offense that should be easily written off.
#HypocriticalHollywood has struck again. Instead of practicing what they preach, it is apparent that they are in desperate need of gun control as much as they claim the rest of America does.
Yet, they are not the only problem starters. As it stands, all sides are preventing a healthy working relationship in the future. On one end of the spectrum, we have Hollywood's most prominent figures preaching for The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution to be revoked; on the other, we have Donald Trump Jr. selling shirts for $27.99 that read "Guns don't kill people, Alec Baldwin does" which spreads a toxic, divisive narrative and monetizes a tragic death for personal gain. If creating a joke out of a terrible occurrence in which a wife, mother, and real human being died is funny to you, then you are a pathetic waste of precious CO2. It does not matter that Baldwin worked with a team of celebrities and activists in launching the "No Rifle Association Initiative" in 2018, with the goal of limiting the NRA's influence on American politics and culture; that Baldwin tweeted at former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch, ”The Second Amendment is not a moral credit card that buys you all the guns you want. That law needs to be rethought”; or that Baldwin repetitively mocked former-President Donald Trump Sr. on the popular comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live. While eerily ironic, quips like this are intolerable. In actuality, Trump Jr. was served an opportunity to promote his political party on a golden platter. This was the perfect chance for him to point the public towards organizations that promote education on owning and operating guns — something his party celebrates — yet he couldn't put his personal vendetta for Baldwin aside. Thus, he missed out on the ultimate rhetorical occasion that would have lacked solid counterarguments. "Hollywood doesn't want guns yet they are hypocrites for wielding them in their biggest blockbusters because they know it’s a sure-fire way to get Republican movie-goers dollars — and then they misuse them along the way," he could have said. "Maybe if Hollywood productions had NRA safety experts on set, this wouldn't have happened." Like his father, Trump Jr. would rather attack an opponent (which reflects a negative light back upon himself) than make use of intellectual strategy when ideal occasions occur.
God, both sides here are mad in the head (as are all of the passionate Karens and Karls fighting about the topic in Facebook comment sections). So who is right?
Me and Aristotle, actually.
The late philosopher argued for a golden mean where “the vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate.” In an attempt to avoid extremes, which Hollywood and the Republican party are executing, the solution that ensures this will never happen again is simple: Hollywood and the National Rifle Association need to date. There must be a healthy, communicative relationship between the two historic enemies.
This is bigger than politics or any hashtag-driven movement taking Twitter by storm. We are discussing human lives — meaning everyone must put their agendas, beliefs, and egos aside to fight for changes that clearly did not occur after actor Brandon Lee was killed on the set of The Crowe in 1993. Utilizing fake guns is not a solution. Independent films are not funded by large studios with multi-million dollar budgets. Computer-generated imagery is too costly (if you want it to be realistic at all) — forcing them to rely on authentic weapons. That means armorers working in the entertainment industry should be NRA Certified Range Safety Officers, which is a certification far greater than an NRA Firearms Instructor. Even if Gutierrez-Reed had been a "Licensed Armorer," Hollywood unions issue that license, not any state government or group that specializes in guns safety instruction. The NRA and Hollywood mustn’t let politics interfere with the safety of innocent men and women. Let’s make human lives the priority and call for the NRA to become actively involved with all Hollywood film productions by working to enforce gun control on sets. It is the least we can do.
