NPR: A jury in New Mexico has found Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer for the film Rust, guilty of involuntary manslaughter. During the criminal trial, prosecutors successfully argued that her negligence and recklessness led to the death of the film's cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, in 2021.
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This is very important news for the props industry that will hopefully set a precedent going forward. Armorers and prop managers for productions need to take all the safety precautions when it comes to having prop weapons on set. It is their job to make sure everything goes up to standard, and if anything does go wrong, it is their fault. Unfortunately, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is guilty because of her negligence and reckless handling of prop guns on the set of Rust. She should have made sure that there was no possible way for the guns to fire real bullets, and absolutely no one should have been playing around with the guns on set. There needs to be more education held on how prop weapons are used in productions, and hopefully this case will inspire others to educate themselves on the topic. I feel bad for Gutierrez-Reed because she probably was not properly educated herself, but I’m hoping that due to this case, no more inexperienced or uneducated people will be in charge of prop weapons in productions.
In all honesty, this is something that I kind of expected would happen. Having read a lot of different articles about this entire shooting over the past couple weeks, it seemed that there was a pretty solid case of negligence and severe sloppiness by Gutierrez-Reed. Something that I thought was pretty interesting was that both sides argue that Baldwin is also to blame. I kind of expect (or hope?) he’ll face consequences for it, mostly just because the argument of “oh the gun just magically fired” seems kind of wacky, but I’m no lawyer. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in his trial. I really hope that this is the last time we’ll see something like this happen again. I think that essentially how public this thing has been will inform future props people of how important it is to not be sloppy on the job, and especially if Baldwin faces consequences, actors and producers will know that they have to be careful when weapons are involved too.
The "Rust" incident, where Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty after the tragic death of Halyna Hutchins, really shakes things up. It's a harsh reminder that safety isn't just a checklist item—it's a lifesaver. This whole sad story tells us that every job, especially those dealing with dangerous stuff like guns, needs serious safety checks. It's mind-boggling to think this could have been avoided with some basic safety steps. It makes you think about responsibility too. It's not just on one person; it's a team game. From the people in charge to those on the ground, everyone's got a part in keeping things safe. And it's not just about following rules but really understanding why they're there—to stop tragedies like this from happening again. Let's take this as a wake-up call to always prioritize safety, no matter the job. It's a lesson learned in the hardest way possible, but one we shouldn't forget. Let's make sure Halyna Hutchins' loss leads to safer workspaces for everyone, everywhere.
This is such a complicated case with so many things going wrong. There never ever should’ve been a real bullet on set to begin with. The gun should’ve never been pointed at the camera. There is probably a single person who is at fault being the person who placed a real bullet in the gun in place of a dummy bullet but I don’t think we can ever really know who it was. It could’ve been Hannah but we don’t know. Also, one thing I heard was that stage hands were using the guns at a local gun range, so that could’ve been how a bullet got on set. However I’m not sure if that’s true. They didn’t mention it in this article. In this article they did mention that the armorer could’ve been on drugs which is super incriminating in this case. I can’t imagine why anyone would think it’s a good idea to be high while handling weapons.
It’s nice to finally get a little bit of closure on the Rust case. I’m sure it won’t be the last we hear of it, though. This is an important case in the theatrical, filmmaking, and otherwise entertainment world. I hope and am confident that new precedents will come from the situation. Though I don’t think we’ve seen any widespread written rules, I’m sure that prop shops, theaters, and film sets around the country have implemented new policies and rules for handling firearms and thus have become just that much more safe. Unfortunately, entertainment tends to be a world in which we don’t create necessary rules and regulations until we push the breaking point – this was a worst case scenario. I hope that Alec Baldwin is also found guilty; I’d be surprised if he isn’t. The mention of narcotics in this article is interesting, since I, at least, haven’t heard any mention of such thing up until now. I wonder if that was at all related to the incident.
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