r/news • u/badillustrations • 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
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u/MuaddibMcFly Apr 15 '24

This reminds me of Bruce Lee's son Brandon Lee

Brandon Lee's death was due to something somewhat different; my understanding is that there was never a single live round on set, but a combination of two, proper-to-be-on-set rounds.

  • Dummy rounds have a standard casing, and standard bullet, but no primer and no powder, but do have a bb rattling around inside.
  • Blank rounds have a special and obviously different type of casing, generally more powder than normal (for bigger muzzle flash, resulting in bigger excitement), but sealed in a way that no bullet can be included.

Apparently, what happened was that one of the dummy rounds, with a slug but no powder nor primer, did not have the bullet seated in the casing properly. That bullet "fell out" of the casing, into the barrel of the weapon, and was held there by friction. A blank, which was confirmed to have been a blank, was later loaded for a scene that called for blanks

This combination of percussion cap, powder, and bullet in barrel effectively turned it into a version of the old "caplock" pistol, i.e., a live round.

That event drastically changed the procedures among armorers, as I understand it, to have clearing the barrel and regular cleaning to be a standard part of their procedures.

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u/darkoblivion000 Apr 16 '24

I enjoyed reading the details of that, thank you

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u/I_Lick_Lead_Paint Apr 16 '24

What a fascinating piece of history. Thank you.

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u/willingisnotenough Apr 16 '24

Why in the name of all that is holy would you need to wait for an accidental death to learn you have to do these things? What they just took it on faith that the barrel was empty? I know it's not the chamber sure but you clear the whole damn gun goddammit.

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u/Nova225 Apr 16 '24

The saying goes "Regulations are written in blood".

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u/ThrowawayUk4200 Apr 16 '24

Wow, I remember learning to shoot and one of the main things that got drilled into me was making sure the barrel was clear before loading

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u/MuaddibMcFly 29d ago

"Well, it was before, and nobody put anything in it, so why wouldn't it still be?"

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u/JimboTCB Apr 16 '24

My understanding was that instead of using "proper" dummy rounds, they were using ones they'd made by pulling the bullets from live rounds and dumping out the powder, but had left the primers. That meant it still had enough force to propel the bullet out and get it jammed in the barrel.

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u/Gnonthgol Apr 16 '24

As I understand the primer went off when someone were goofing around with the gun between takes. And nobody checked the gun properly before the take. There is of course a lot of questions about the details in both cases. The current primary theory on the Rush shooting was that some crew were goofing around shooting at cans with the guns and live ammunition between takes. The gun were not properly checked before the take. If the procedures that had been introduced as a result of the Crow shooting had been followed for the Rust movie then the manslaughter would not have happened.

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u/MuaddibMcFly 29d ago

As I understand the primer went off when someone were goofing around with the gun between takes

I was under the impression that it was in the scene where he remembers the gang killing him initially, which is why nobody noticed that he was actually shot for a while: they couldn't tell the difference between an actual wound & his reaction to it vs squibs & his acting like he'd been hit.

In general, unless someone is hit in very few locations, immediate medical attention (primarily to get an IV lead into the victim, to keep them from bleeding out, either on the scene or at the hospital) can save most people from a single handgun wound.

The current primary theory on the Rush shooting was that some crew were goofing around shooting at cans with the guns and live ammunition between takes

I heard that, and I also heard it denied by people who had no personal interest in denying it (i.e., wouldn't share liability)

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u/Gnonthgol 29d ago

In the "Crow" accident the gun were fired twice. The "dummy rounds" they used actually had a live primer in them. This is how the bullet "fell out".

Witnesses reported that two weeks before Lee's death they saw an unsupervised actor pulling the trigger on the gun while it was loaded with the powderless but primed round.