I question that. Someone with a single action revolver needs to check it.
EXCLUSIVE: Alec Baldwin and wife Hilaria head out for coffee in NYC as Santa Fe DA reveals actor might have fired the gun that killed Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins ‘without pulling the trigger’
‘One of the investigators in my office happens to have a very old type revolver, and so he brought it, at my request, so that we could look at it and see if that was at all possible,’ Carmack-Altwies told Vanity Fair.‘Then they visually showed me you can pull the hammer back without actually pulling the trigger and without actually locking it,’ she added. ‘So you pull it back partway, it doesn’t lock, and then if you let it go, the firing pin can hit the primer of the bullet.’
1. I doubt that a hammer pulled back short of half-cock would land with sufficient force to set off the primer.
2. Pulling the hammer back begins to rotate the cylinder. I don’t think a primer would even be under the hammer when it landed,
I don’t currently own a SA revolver. Someone who does should fact-check me.
Ordinarily, no a SSA (or variant) will not behave as they describe. But until the actual pistol used is examined we cannot say for sure. Had Baldwin’s revolver been modified in any way? As a “Hollywood gun” was it set up to allow slip hammering or fanning? Was it in good condition? Was it a modern (Ruger) transfer bar design or a traditional hammer with attached firing pin? Were the primers standard primers? The biggest question is
“Who was the idiot who brought live shells onto a cold set?”
Remember, common custom in the Old West was to carry your SAA with an empty cylinder under the hammer.
“Who was the idiot who brought live shells onto a cold set?”
In the armorer’s version of events, it would have been her. She claims her dummy round supplier slipped a live round into her box of dummies, and she somehow never noticed. But…
There are conflicting reports that crew or cast members were using the prop gun (reportedly a Pietta in .45 LC) for target shooting. One report claimed targeting shooting the same morning as Baldwin’s FU.
Carrying on an empty chamber wasn’t just for SAs. It was common on double action revolvers when the firing pin was integral with the hammer. The practice largely ceased with the introduction of the transfer bar.
Plenty of blame to go around. Baldwin blaming the gun shouldn’t come as a surprise — he’s hardcore lefty, and that’s what they do.
If it was (indeed) the gun, and he (actually) didn’t touch the trigger,
then it’s probable that the sear didn’t engage to lock the hammer.
If the live round was in the chamber under the hammer, the cylinder ratchet wouldn’t have to increment. Most hammer-driven
guns I’ve used were capable of firing with about 50% displacement
( “going off half-cocked?”) — and you can test this with any SA or DA
bang stick with an external hammer.
Chris Mallory’s “fanning” suspicion is well-founded.
I’m going to put $5 on civil lawsuits galore, and likely trivial
criminal charges, if any.
Today’s news reports that Baldwin has purchased a 50 acre farm
here in Vermont …. there goes the neighborhood!!
I’d consider handing a SA, modified for triggerless fanning, to any untrained person to be rank stupidity. But as this incident proves, mass stupidity was present on that set. The only smart people were the crewmen that walked out. So I’ll wait and see.
I participated in Cowboy Action Shooting for many years in matches ranging from small new clubs to the World Championship. During that time I never heard of a negligent discharge from pulling the hammer back and letting it down without pulling the trigger. Pulling the hammer back does rotate the cylinder and the primer is only under the firing pin when the hammer has been pulled back fully. Additionally, older SA revolvers have a safety notch in addition to half cock. Neither will allow the hammer to fall completely without pulling the trigger. Newer SA revolvers have transfer bars and hammer blockers that prevent the hammer from hitting the firing pin unless the trigger is pulled. I have seen ND’s when the shooter had his finger on the trigger (and had the trigger pulled back) when the hammer was released. Most of the time this resulted in a stage disqualification, and on rare occasions a match disqualification. In every case, it was an operator error and not a mechanical malfunction.