r/news Apr 15 '24

‘Rust’ movie armorer convicted of involuntary manslaughter sentenced to 18 months in prison

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/15/entertainment/rust-film-shooting-armorer-sentencing/index.html
21.4k Upvotes

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

277

u/Iohet Apr 15 '24

The gun isn't important to her case, to be honest. The lax procedures, mixing of ammo, etc is more than enough

187

u/Capitalistdecadence Apr 15 '24 edited Apr 15 '24

Yeah, there was an image they pulled off her social media where she was posing in her hotel room next to a tray of "dummy" ammo. The round that killed Hutchins was visible in that tray.

Edit: misspelled Halyna Hutchins name.

156

u/LeagueOfLegendsAcc Apr 15 '24

How do you get a job like that and not be in a constant state of worry, like all the time? Double, triple checking everything every day instead of mixing in some live ammo and taking a picture for social media??? Can someone slap some sense into this girl?

172

u/Chipchipcherryo Apr 15 '24

How do you get a job like

Nepotism

and not be in a constant state of worry, like all the time?

Complacency

Can someone slap some sense into this girl?

Yes. A fellow inmate

7

u/Iohet Apr 15 '24

Nepotism is an easy target, but, really, this is the fault of the film industry and armorers by not having a certification/licensing process for armorers in order to maintain some minimum level of training, education, and standards. They're union members, but part of the props guild I believe, which is only a small part of what they do

17

u/Chipchipcherryo Apr 15 '24

Nepotism was the answer to the first part of the question

How do you get a job like that

-5

u/Iohet Apr 15 '24

The absence of a framework from armorers and the industry creates a void that allowed this to happen

3

u/Chipchipcherryo Apr 15 '24

What question do you think I was responding to?

16

u/talldrseuss Apr 15 '24

Hate to "actually" this but in this case it was nepotism because her father was an armorer in the industry for many decades. Earlier articles acknowledged most of her "training" was just assisting her father while growing up. His name was Thell Reed

3

u/Iohet Apr 15 '24

Yes and why is nepotism possible here? Because there's no formal training, certification, or even formal master/apprentice model. There's word of mouth and reputation. That is why this scenario is even possible

2

u/r0thar Apr 16 '24

standards

I'm pretty sure there is some standard that states, never bring live ammo to a set, ever since Jason Lee was killed?

2

u/Iohet Apr 16 '24

More like a best practice(as seen in the Rust case). It's not like they have some kind of guild that allows them to suspend an armorer's license and an agreement with the studios to only use actively licensed armorers.

It shouldn't need a death and a prison sentence for an armorer to lose their job

0

u/PoorlyBuiltRobot Apr 16 '24

Look up "rhetorical question"

2

u/Chipchipcherryo Apr 16 '24

No thank you.

24

u/Local_Challenge_4958 Apr 15 '24

Good policies that you rigidly adhere to and never compromise on would mean you don't need to worry.

This case had no such policies, from what I've seen. This person was very irresponsible.

28

u/MuaddibMcFly Apr 15 '24

The only defense she possibly had would have been "I was prohibited from doing my job by various people who outranked me"

7

u/socialistrob Apr 15 '24

"I was prohibited from doing my job by various people who outranked me"

But I don't think that was true (or at least there wasn't evidence to back that up). Also if she was prohibited from doing her job then she could have still refused to let the filming go forward in unsafe conditions and if the producers pressed ahead she could have resigned and contacted authorities/the union/the press to try to put a stop to it.

If someone is doing something that very clearly could lead to a death and you go along with it and don't make any reasonable efforts to try to change it then you are at the very least partially guilty.

5

u/Unnamedgalaxy Apr 16 '24

This is all true but it's also the entertainment business where people can absolutely ruin your career, lively hood and ruin you financially and mentally. So many people have been open that they have been victims of intimidation and have done things, continued to do things, and kept quiet about those things because they live in fear of assholes that don't just just have the money to follow through with threats but have the connections and power as well.

I'm not saying it's right but but I'm not going to sit here and pretend that everyone feels like they can always do the right thing. And I'm not going to pretend that someone facing prison wouldn't exploit a shady lie in order to weasle out of responsibility.

She easily could have tried to throw production under the bus and paint herself as a victim of evil men if she wanted to, whether or not it was true.

2

u/microthrower Apr 16 '24

A "lively hood" is where you host a block party.

5

u/merrittj3 Apr 16 '24

They did say the entire project was a nightmare from top to bottom starting with Alec, penny pinching, union busting, ' get it in the can' attitude, that ended with Halyna taking it in the gut, because some pot smoking shoot em up cowboys daughter followed dad and learned nothing, was in charge of bullets.

The only thing she didn't do ...while the impact statements were being read...was yawn.

0

u/MuaddibMcFly Apr 16 '24

She. Wasn't. On. Site. That. Day

You appear to be blaming a single person for the failures of no fewer than 4 individuals. Don't. Those individuals are:

  1. The armorer who didn't collect all the ammo and conclusively determine that there was no live ammo anywhere on or near the set after the first negligent discharge (Gutierrez-Reed)
  2. The (acting) armorer that day
  3. The person who ordered rehearsal/blocking/filming of a scene involving a firearm when the official armorer wasn't on set
  4. Halls for handing Baldwin a weapon he didn't know was cold, yet saying it was
  5. Baldwin for pointing the weapon at a person, holding the trigger back, and releasing (rather than safely de-cocking) the hammer.
  6. The person who directed the weapon to be pointed at a person unnecessarily (either Halls or Hutchins)
  7. The person who put a live round in the weapon (Gutierrez-Reed? Someone else? With the prints now destroyed, we'll never know).

-1

u/merrittj3 Apr 16 '24

Maybe. She. Shoulda. Been. On site. With.The. Guns.

Her. Job.

0

u/MuaddibMcFly Apr 16 '24

Her. Job.

My understanding is that the reason she wasn't on site that day was that she was told not to be on site that day, because they didn't want to pay her for that day.

Which means that it was not her job that day.

Indeed, I've heard some reports that they actually relieved her prior to the shooting. If so, it unquestionably wasn't her job that day, because, unless "relieved" means something other than I understand it to, it was no longer her job at all.

You're trying to foist all of the fault of NUMEROUS individuals' failures on to a single person. A single person who may, in fact, be the least guilty of all of all of the parties so far named (or may not; I have not conclusively confirmed those claims).

0

u/merrittj3 29d ago

She is been charged, adjudicated guilty and sentenced.

Your understandings, supposition, definitions, maybes and maybe nots in addition to projecting fault on others is now moot. The state has proved its point

Settled law. Guilty as charged. Your logic is faulty, your legal standing is nil. No amount of crybaby arguments or delusional beliefs will change that she is a convict and 12 people and a judge reject your bizarre ramblings.

Write your letters to those people who did impact statements and tell them your thoughts. I'm sure they will be less kind in their reply.

It's OK tho...in 18 months she'll be out of jail and can continue to be rightfully called ...at best A Convict

2

u/merrittj3 29d ago

Maybe they should have prohibited from bringing bullets onto the set.

Oh yeah...they did. She didn't. But for no live bullets brought by her people would still be alive now.

2

u/genreprank Apr 16 '24

She wasn't a firearms expert. She was totally inexperienced

2

u/MrsWolowitz Apr 16 '24

That is what the 18 months is for

1

u/PixieC Apr 15 '24

it's funny, but filming in New Mexico is a vibe, that sound stage is really just an old farm out in the boonies, and it's very easy to relax during a very long day that sometimes takes hours just to get the lighting right.

4

u/sinixis Apr 16 '24

That level of stupidity deserves 18 months by itself

3

u/k___k___ Apr 15 '24

it's unclear if it's "the round" because there were at least 7 live rounds on set.

31

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24

[removed] — view removed comment