Alec Baldwin asks police on film sets to monitor weapons

Reuters

As Hollywood considers new security measures after the fatal accident during filming of the western movie “Rust”, actor Alec Baldwin said on Monday that he believes film and television productions should hire police officers to monitor weapons on sets.

Baldwin accidentally shot and killed director of photography Halyna Hutchins on Oct. 21, after being told that the gun he was rehearsing with on the set of “Rust” in New Mexico was “cold”, meaning safe to use, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities are trying to determine how a live bullet ended up in the weapon given to Baldwin. Lawyers for the woman responsible for the guns in “Rust” said she believed she had loaded the gun with dummy bullets.

Since the incident, producers and production team members have been evaluating whether further steps should be taken to prevent a similar tragedy in the future. Baldwin said he believes the productions should hire the police to ensure the weapons used in the footage are safe.

“Every movie/television set that uses guns, fake or otherwise, must have a police officer on set, hired by the production, to specifically monitor gun safety,” Baldwin said on Twitter.

Others have called for a ban on real weapons on film and television sets. Actor Dwayne Johnson said last week that his future productions would only use rubber guns during filming.