How to Talk Your Way into Prison

Alec Baldwin still seems to be counting on the power of celebrity to keep him off Mugshots.com.

As people who read the news know, Baldwin shot and killed a cinematographer, using a loaded gun that was supplied as a prop. For some reason, a live round had found its way into the cylinder, and Baldwin pointed the gun at the director and pulled the trigger. The bullet somehow hit the director, injured him, and then passed into the body of the cinematographer, ending her life quickly.

Baldwin has behaved very badly, blaming the assistant director and set armorer publicly. So much for courage and loyalty. He seems to think that if he was handed a loaded gun, it doesn’t matter what he did with it, because the assistant director and armorer had a duty to make sure it wasn’t loaded. Of course, this is horse manure. Every person who handles firearms has an obligation to know how they work and what the safety rules are. You can’t pick up a firearm and do as you please with it, based on the assumption that someone else, no matter who, has rendered it safe. It doesn’t matter that the armorer’s job was to make the gun safe, nor does it matter that the assistant director also assumed that responsibility. Baldwin had a duty to check it again when he accepted possession. The last person to hold the gun is the killer, period.

It must be wonderful to know your employer, a person with a great deal more power than you in your industry, is trying to put you in prison for his mistake. Baldwin is not a stand-up guy. Not someone you would want beside you in a foxhole.

Baldwin has given George Stephanopoulos an interview, and his new excuse is that he didn’t pull the trigger.

First, it was someone else’s fault. Now he’s blaming a miracle. Even if the miracle occurred, which it did not, he is still guilty.

Baldwin used a real revolver made by the Pietta company. The Pietta company is based in Italy, which is home to some other companies that make reproduction guns for people who like weapons used in the Old West. Pietta does not make special guns for firing blanks. The gun he used was a faithful reproduction of a single-action Colt in .45 Long Colt.

I assume he chose Pietta because they look like Colts, and they’re cheap. One model lists for $540.

Here’s the thing: revolvers don’t just go off. A single-action revolver has to be cocked before every shot, and once it’s cocked, you have to pull the trigger. It won’t go off just because you wave it at someone.

My understanding–correct me if you know better–is that a Pietta revolver can go off if dropped, provided there is a round under the hammer. Modern revolvers have parts that prevent this, but Pietta makes old-fashioned guns.

My great uncle Rich shot himself off a courthouse toilet with an Italian revolver that didn’t have modern safety features; he sat down with the revolver in his pants pocket, and the gun fired a round into his leg when it hit the floor. Maybe that kind of thing could happen with the revolver Baldwin used, but everyone agrees the gun was in his hand when the shooting occurred.

Either Baldwin pulled the trigger, or he caught the hammer on something, or the gun had a magical defect that somehow allowed it to fire by itself.

It doesn’t matter. Even if the gun shot itself, which didn’t happen, Baldwin was negligent.

When someone hands you a gun, you have an obligation to make sure it isn’t loaded, even if you’re a Tinseltown big shot and your armorer and assistant director and an assortment of other employees and toadies have told you the gun is clear. Then you have to treat it as though it were loaded anyway. You have a duty not to point it at anyone. You have a duty to make sure no one is downrange where they might be hit, even if you’re not pointing it at them deliberately. Baldwin violated all these rules even if he didn’t pull the trigger. That makes him negligent, and negligence is all it takes for him to be found guilty.

His lawyer must be an imbecile. Either that, or he doesn’t have one. Or he has one, but he doesn’t listen to him. No lawyer with enough brains to fill a shot glass would let Baldwin do an interview before trial.

Baldwin hasn’t said anything that would indicate innocence, but he has said enough to prove he was negligent in relying on other people to make the gun safe. He has also said a lot of things that will make him very unpopular in his industry, among people he will need to work with in the future.

Pietta’s owner’s manuals contain the rules of firearms safety. Look:

ALWAYS carry revolvers with the hammer down on an empty chamber to prevent accidental discharges caused by a blow to the hammer or with the hammer set on the proper safety position.

More:

ALWAYS handle and treat your gun as if it were loaded so you never fire it accidentally when you think it is unloaded. NEVER think it is unloaded.

NEVER take anyone’s word it is unloaded. ALWAYS check it yourself with your fingers off the trigger and the gun pointed in a safe direction at all times, including while loading.

More:

NEVER keep or carry any revolver with the hammer cocked. Cocking the gun or pulling the trigger should only be done when you are ready to shoot immediately.

More:

ALWAYS leave your fingers out of the trigger until you start firing. Note: safety devices on guns are extras and do not subsitute for safe handling.

More:

NEVER perch the gun on the half-cock notch as it may fall and discharge, causing damage to property, injury or death. The half-cock position provides only partial security from accidental discharges. If damaged or modified it provides NO safety. NEVER depend on the device to prevent accidental discharge.

More:

ALWAYS keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. This way, if it fires accidentally, personal injury, death or damage to property can be prevented. This is especially important when loading and unloading your gun. NEVER let the muzzle of the firearm point at any part of your body or at another person or at anything you do not intend to shoot, even if you think it is unloaded. ALWAYS be certain of your target before firing.

More:

ALWAYS unload all firearms when not in use. NEVER store or transport a loaded firearm.

More:

Keep all persons nearby to the rear of the shooter. Standing beside or in front of the shooter is not safe. Flames, hot gases and fragments might fly from the side of the gun causing serious injury.

If you have any doubts about your ability to handle or use this gun safely DO NOT handle or use this gun. You must seek supervised instruction before doing so.

If the DA and the lawyers representing the people suing Baldwin have any idea what they’re doing, they’ll show the jury the owner’s manual. It will prove Baldwin either didn’t read it or didn’t follow the instructions.

What does the manual say? It says, “NEVER take anyone’s word it is unloaded. ALWAYS check it yourself.”

“Mr. Baldwin, here is the owner’s manual for the gun you purchased. Could you read the highlighted passage, please?”

Baldwin ought to be quiet instead of giving prosecutors and Gloria Allred rope to hang him with. I can’t understand why he would behave so foolishly. I guess he’s so spoiled he can’t believe anyone would charge THE Alec Baldwin with a crime.

My opinion is that the DA will charge him, if not because he’s guilty, then because he’s being sued civilly. Imagine how bad the DA will look if Gloria Allred proves he’s guilty after he is spared criminal prosecution. I doubt she wants that on her record.

Typically, people care much more about themselves than they do about their duties. Unless the DA is unusual, she will not care much about the injustice of letting a guilty man skate, but she will be highly disturbed by the prospect of having her reputation stained.

It’s amazing how many stupid legal opinions I’ve seen since the shooting occurred. This is not a hard case to understand, even for a typical district attorney private-sector firms didn’t find appealing enough to hire. It’s about as simple as it gets.

Baldwin will have to prove his innocence, and he can’t. A lot of people think a defendant never has to prove anything, but that’s because they’re ignorant. When a prosecutor shows you shot someone with a gun you didn’t check, you have to come up with justification, and Baldwin can’t, because he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

The presumption of innocence is swell, but it goes away once the prosecution makes a strong case against you. After that, the burden of proof is all yours.

If Baldwin isn’t charged, it will be for one of two reasons: the DA crumpled because he’s THE Alec Baldwin, or some astounding set of facts which is completely unforeseeable at this time materializes from nothingness.

I don’t know what kind of sentence he would get, but the maximum is a $5000 fine and 18 months in prison, and I assume New Mexico gives people a lot of time off when they cooperate. It’s not a life-destroying prosecution. Who knows? They might let him plead to a misdemeanor so he won’t be a convicted felon. I don’t know the customs of New Mexico prosecutors, but in Florida, my former pastor raped a little girl over and over and only served a couple of years. Sometimes maximum sentences mean almost nothing.

I am getting more merciful in my old age, and I don’t like to see anyone convicted, but it would be nice to see Baldwin stop making excuses and stabbing other people in the back. I would understand completely if he said nothing, but using your less-powerful employees as human shields is not becoming. It’s like jumping behind your wife during a mugging.

My prediction: a charge or charges will be filed. How severe the penalty will be, I am not qualified to guess. As for the civil cases, people will get paid, and there will be no trial unless someone is really greedy. The money will come from insurers, not Baldwin or his associates, and insurers love to settle.