How does a prop gun not get checked? An experienced armourer says there’s a complete lack of discipline, and professionalism on the set of Alec Baldwin’s movie Rust

The gun Baldwin fired in the fatal shooting on the Rust movie set was handed to the actor loaded with a live round, according to a warrant from the ongoing police investigation.

So how does a prop gun not get checked if it has live ammunition?

“It really should never happen. It’s just pure negligence on the side of the armourer,”

Leonides-Morgan says.

Benjamin Leonides-Morgan from Firearm training for film and TV is a highly skilled armourer with extensive experience with blockbuster productions.

He says the armourer on the set of Rust was new to the job and didn’t have much experience.

The armourer was described as being “inexperienced and green” by a Rust production source.

They explained that there were at least two previous incidents of guns being unsafely discharged by other crew members before the tragic incident on Thursday.

They insisted that she should have checked the weapons were safe before handing it to Baldwin.

“How you could get live rounds and blank rounds confused is beyond me.”

Leonides-Morgan says the firearm should have been checked first.

“Normally, we’d show it to the presenter, we’d show them, we’d show it’s empty, we’d show we will load in blanks. Everything will be communicated to everybody,” he continued on standard firearm procedures in the industry.

His company Firearm training for film and TV works with people from film, television and stage to provide theoretical and safe practical competency in the use of firearms.

From his experience, Leonides-Morgan says the procedures followed by the Rust crew were not safe.

“There’s many aspects of production that was not safe. And I’m surprised this is happening now in this day and age, with all the help and safety that we have in place and the training of people on set.”

What went wrong?

“I’m an armour, I used to experience I’ve always dealt with firearms. I’m a shooter anyway. So I would know exactly what I’m doing what I’m putting into that firearm. And I think what they’ve done is they’ve got slack, they’ve got contempt”

And there’s rumours coming out that they’ve been using the firearms in their breaks to do a bit of shooting, and the live rounds are mixed with blank ammunition.

“So obviously, there’s a complete lack of discipline, and professionalism going on. And I then they’ve just got mixed up, maybe the armour isn’t on top of it,” he says.

“But the procedure really would be to show everyone that that rifle or pistol is clear. And then just show what you’re loading in there,

“Whenever I would walk on the set. With any firearm, the first thing I’ll do is walk up that director and just show them and show them that look, it’s empty, it’s clear, there’s a prop. It’s not real. And I’ll explain what I’m doing all the time. Obviously with this, they’ve not done this. And obviously, you know, feedback consequences.”

Who will be held accountable?

“Obviously, the production, the producers are accountable because this happened as far as their production. But I think it’s going to be who’s in charge of those firearms,” Leonides-Morgan says.

“I think it’s the arm where they’re in charge of the firearms, and what happens to them. And so personally, I feel they’re going to be responsible there. I think when the story comes out, there’s going to be a lot of other people involved in this. I think there’s, there’s more to this that’s going to come to light.”

What about assistant director? Well – Leonides-Morgan says he wouldn’t be responsible for any firearms at all.

“He wouldn’t be dealing with firearms. If you’re speaking to the one that called and said it’s clear, and that it was cold, they was empty, and there was no rounds in there, then obviously, they deserve to be fired for this.”

How was this negligence allowed by such a team of professionals?

Leonides-Morgan says it all comes down to experience.

“The production cut a lot of cut the budget, they will not put the money into this film like they should. There was a lot of complaints from crew members just the week before,” he says.

“They had been negligent discharges of the firearm previously on the previous week. And I think discipline was completely slack on set, and total lack of experience from the side of the armourer.”

He believes there was a lot of freedoms, and “I just do not think they were doing it right.”

How will this change firearms on film sets going forward?

The last time in an incident like this was 1993 with Brandon Lee, so this isn’t something that happens often.

Leonides-Morgan says it will definitely give a knock to the industry and make sure they get professional armourers on set when it comes to firearms.

“I think people will step it up, get people like myself to come on, provide the firearms advice, and stay there with the firearms all the time,” he says.

“So it will step up that level for productions not to cut any corners, pave when the right money and get the professionals in to do the job correctly.”