Alec Baldwin and His Trigger Finger

Okay, I’ll admit I own a few firearms, both handguns and long guns. I’m not a hunter, but I’ve always enjoyed shooting, not at people, but at targets. I once owned a single-action revolver not unlike that used by Alec Baldwin, but sold it over 30 years ago. Baldwin, as most people now know, used such a revolver when he shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42. 

For those who are not familiar with firearms, I suppose there’s one obvious question: Is shooting a firearm essentially dangerous? No it’s not. Shooting a firearm is really no more dangerous than driving a car, operating a circular saw, or really using any tool that has the capability of causing injury or death…unless — and it’s a very big unless — unless proper safety precautions are not always followed. 

From what we know, the firearm involved was an authentic single-action revolver, a “cowboy gun” for the unenlightened. Firing such a weapon normally involves a two-step process. First, the shooter manually cocks the hammer, usually with the thumb. As the hammer is engaged in the cocked position, the cylinder also rotates and sets up a fresh cartridge to be fired. Then, when the trigger is pulled, the weapon fires. Usually very little pressure is required to pull the trigger of a cocked revolver. Obviously, one normally does not want to carry a cocked revolver, for it can easily fire inadvertently.

There’s another issue that might be involved in this incident. Most single-action revolvers hold six cartridges, but for safety reasons shooters usually load only five rounds, leaving the chamber in front of the hammer empty. Doing this keeps the revolver from firing if it is dropped or if the hammer is pulled back and released before it is fully cocked. Baldwin, then, may have just lightly touched the trigger of a cocked revolver, or he may have let the hammer fall on a live round in the chamber. At this point, let’s see what Alec Baldwin had to say about his use of this firearm.

In a recent ABC News interview, presumably permitted by Baldwin’s attorneys, the actor said, “I feel that someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is. But I know it’s not me.” That’s right, Baldwin takes no responsibility for the tragic and totally unnecessary death of Ms. Hutchins.  

He claimed Hutchins was directing him to pull back the revolver’s hammer as far as he could without cocking it. "I’m just showing her, I go, ‘How about that? Does that work? Do you see that?' ... She said, 'yeah, that's good.'" 

Baldwin then made this remarkable admission, “I let go of the hammer — Bang! The gun goes off." He also added, "I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never.”

Almost everyone in the media has been calling this tragedy an “accident.” But when it comes to firearms safety, there’s no such thing. It always boils down to one of two things: it was either an intentional shooting, or it was a case of negligence abetted by ignorance of normal firearms safety rules. Perhaps, at this point, it would be useful to review some very basic rules regarding the use of firearms. All of us who use firearms responsibly know and always follow these four rules:

Based on what Alex Baldwin stated in his ABC interview with George Stephanoupolis, it appears he broke every one of these four rules. 

1. Always keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction. Baldwin not only intentionally pointed the revolver in an unsafe direction, but actually pointed it directly at Halyna Hutchins. This cannot be denied because Hutchins was struck by the bullet fired from the revolver.  
2. Treat every firearm as if it is fully loaded. Baldwin obviously did not know whether the firearm was loaded or unloaded, but apparently simply accepted what someone else told him. Sorry, Alec, but the only way you can be certain your firearm is unloaded is to examine the firearm yourself. It’s important to recognize that “blanks” can also be dangerous. They are not completely blank, but can cause injury, even death. Besides the explosive gasses that make the “bang,” anything in the cartridge, like wadding or wax filler, will be propelled at high velocity. At close range this can cause serious injury or worse. Apparently, in this instance, however, the round that killed Hutchins was a live round, a bullet not a blank.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the intended target. Baldwin claims he “didn’t pull the trigger.” This assertion leads to a couple of possibilities. First of all, he might actually have fully cocked the revolver but didn’t realize it because of his distracting ongoing conversation with Hutchins. Then, just touching the trigger lightly might well have fired the revolver. Or perhaps the revolver was actually fully loaded, with a live round in the chamber immediately in front of the hammer. Then, when Baldwin released the uncocked hammer, it went forward and fired the round in the chamber. Anyway, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, “It is possible that the gun can fire at any time, or even later when you release the safety, without you ever touching the trigger again.” Things are even trickier with a single-action revolver which has no safety. It’s always critical to know if a live round is in the chamber under the hammer.
4. Always be sure of your target and what’s behind it. Baldwin was fully aware that he was pointing the firearm at Hutchins. This is apparent by the nature of the conversation he had with Hutchins, a conversation he described during his interview on ABC News.

Alec Baldwin broke every rule of firearms safety and his ignorance or willful negligence should not protect him from prosecution. I believe Baldwin’s attorneys made a serious error by allowing the actor to grant that interview. If he is charged, and he might well be accused of some form of involuntary manslaughter, any competent prosecutor will certainly address all the issues I’ve included above (and many others) in order to educate the jurors on firearms safety. 

Should Baldwin be convicted and sentenced to some time in prison? I certainly can’t say, but I hope for his sake he thinks about this woman’s life and accepts his responsibility for her death. In the meantime, we pray for her soul and for his.

Connected Thoughts

We certainly live in interesting times. They're so interesting it's hard not to get lost in the details of current events, all the while neglecting what it means for our civilization. Troubled by this, I've given it some thought. Actually, what I've been left with are a collection of mildly connected thoughts...

Throughout most of my life, I've lived in a reasonably civil society, a society grounded in Judeo-Christian religious values and guided by its imperfect understanding of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. The vast majority of Americans understood and accepted this. One could even state this belief publicly without much fear of contradiction or ridicule. This is no longer true. Indeed, our civil society has given way to a most uncivil society guided only by an unholy alliance of pragmatism and narcissism. The rule of relativism has created a society in which anything, or almost anything, goes. In the prophetic words of the great G. K. Chesterton, "When men choose not to believe in God, they do not therefore believe in nothing, they become capable of believing in anything."

The fragility of our civilization has become apparent. The world's barbarians are at the gate and we, unlike those who came before us, seem oblivious to the fact. While we sacrifice the lives of many of the best among us in a "war on terror" -- or as the current administration prefers to call it: a war on "man-caused disasters" -- we ignore the cultural disintegration taking place all around us. We experience a national trauma when 20 young children are savagely murdered in their classroom, but we celebrate as freedom the far greater but equally savage slaughter of 50 million innocent children in the womb...and we apparently do not see the connection between the two. Today I read of three young men, all in their teens, who shot and killed a young jogger. After their arrest one of them told the police that they were bored and decided to kill someone. Yes, once they believe in nothing, they will believe in anything.

As a nation our response to all the chaos is to attack the symptoms. We "stop and frisk." We build up our swat teams and turn our police forces into small (and some not so small) armies. We take real-time video of everything and everybody. We send drones into our skies to watch ourselves living our lives below. We allow strangers at airports to treat us with disdain, to violate our persons, and to do virtually anything they want...all because of our cowardice.

We worry so much about our security and safety that we willingly allow a government on steroids to trample on our freedoms. As one of our parishioners said to me the other day, "I don't really care what the government does so long as it keeps the terrorists away." I hope he does not awaken one morning and discover there is little difference between the two.

Ben Stein, a man I have long admired even though I do not always agree with him, addressed the NSA's invasions of privacy in his latest online diary entry by writing:

My wife said it well tonight. “I have nothing to hide,” she said. “I’m not afraid of the NSA.”

I actually am nowhere near the person Big Wifey is, but I am not afraid of the NSA either. I am very afraid of the terrorists. It’s that simple.

Yes, Mr. Stein, it is that simple: we have become a nation of cowards. At least you are honest about your cowardice. Most are not. As a nation we have shown ourselves to be far more concerned with our personal safety than with the loss of our liberty. I wore the uniform of this nation for almost 30 years and willingly placed myself in harm's way. My brother, father and grandfather did the same. And I believe I can honestly say that each of us would have given his life for this nation, for the Constitution we were sworn to defend, and for the freedoms it guarantees for all of us. Now I'm the only one left, but believe me, I have never considered my life as important as those freedoms.

This is why I am so disturbed to hear Americans, when asked about the NSA's intrusive spying, say, "If you've got nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about." Hanging on the wall in front of me is a framed but dirty and slightly tattered armband. It contains a roughly sewn Star of David with "Sachsenhausen" stenciled beneath it. A Jewish friend gave it to me because it caused him too much pain. It had belonged to his great uncle who had survived several camps and managed to stay alive until he was liberated. I keep it on my wall to remind me of what humanity is capable of, to remind me of the existence of original sin. The people forced to wear such armbands in such horrible places as Sachsenhausen also believed they had nothing to hide, nothing to worry about.They were wrong.

The solution to the problem we face is not to be found in the symptoms. It's buried deep within the cause. We are a nation that has rejected its Judeo-Christian roots. We have ceased to live our faith, to preach it openly, to pray in the public square. Too many today have turned their backs on God not realizing that the only road to salvation for this nation is to turn back to God.