Hollywood has a thing for guns and their sensationalism because frankly, like the Kardashians promoting make-up products, it sells.  

I’m all for creative freedom and understand that actors act. I cannot lose my mind because one moment they are shooting a machine gun in Tropic Thunder and the next sending letters to the NRA about gun control.

Some of my favorite actors have wildly different opinions on politics, guns, and religion than I do, and that’s ok with me. I can separate the two and would rather have Hollywood continue to have full expressive freedom than to start calling bullshit on any sort of gun hypocrisy. Think about that for a second before you go full cancel culture on me. Would we really want Hollywood as an industry to get rid of firearms? What next? No sex? No nudity? 

As easy as it would be to kick Alec Baldwin while he’s down I’m not going to do this. It was clear to me he was let down by an incompetent armorer and that’s a shame.

Accidentally killing that young mother is something he will live with for the rest of his life and I don’t wish that on most people.

Let’s talk about what we can learn from this rather than go after Baldwin and most of the press which is pushing carefully crafted talking points from a public relations agency. 

If anyone is accountable here it’s the on-set armorer responsible for gun safety, Hannah Gutierrez (essentially a range safety officer for film sets), who apparently handed him a loaded weapon with real bullets and said it was “clear”.

What qualifications does she have? Range Safety Officer school? I suspect not.