I’ve been mulling this one over quite a bit, and I’ve come to the conclusion that Baldwin at the very least should be charged with manslaughter. Here’s my thought process: He was handed a real Colt .45 by assistant director David Halls, someone not authorized to handle the weapons or give them to the actors. Only if Baldwin had been handed the gun by the armorer could he have been legally absolved for the death. But Halls had no authority to hand off weapons, nor call out “cold gun!”. That is the job of the armorer. Baldwin shouldn’t have accepted a weapon from anyone other than the armorer. This makes Baldwin liable. Now, should the armorer have secured the guns somehow? Sure. But this was a movie set filled with adults. Everyone should have known, and surely did know, not to touch the guns. But the chain of custody for weapons should have been armorer to actor, with no middle man. Ideally, Baldwin should have been checking the weapons each time, no matter who handed them off, but the armorer had sole responsibility for handing off the weapons. The attention and charges should be direct at no one other than Baldwin.
