Howzabout we lighten up on Alec Baldwin just a little bit,,,
Far too many of the posts about him are what my Grannie would call "plain mean".
"He deserves what he will get"
"Serves him right for being a Hollywood liberal"
People in the Pro-2A community are laughing about this tragic event,,,
And roasting him merely for his political stance.
Just imagine what your feelings would be if it had same thing had happened to you,,,
I mean now he has to live the rest of his life reliving that terrible moment,,,
The moment when he pulled the trigger and saw the woman die.
Maybe the truth is that on-set safety was lax,,,
Maybe the truth was that it was deliberate sabotage,,,
In all probability it was some where in between those two situations.
When I read the first news blurb about this,,,
I immediately thought of my days as a cowboy re-enacter.
I was a member of a group (Guthrie Gunfighters) who staged old west gunfights for tourists,,,
That was over 20 years ago but I do remember one event at the Tom Mix Festival in Guthrie.
I carried an Uberti 1858 Remington C&B Pistol,,,
We loaded my revolver with only 10 grains of powder,,,
The cartridge guys used some kind of grain meal as a wad,,,
The C&B shooters ( I wasn't the only one) used those foam packing peanuts.
We had very strict rules on loading the guns:
1) All blanks were made by one member of the group.
2) Two designated members would verify that the 5-rounds to be loaded were indeed our blanks.
3) The brass for the blanks were all colored a bright green to prevent any possibility of substitutions.
4) The shooter loaded the blanks into the pistol then all three of them signed the "shooting Log" book.
5) For us CAB shooters, the same two designated members would watch us charge our cylinders and again we all signed the log book.
There were a few more safety precautions that I won't boor you with,,,
Suffice it to say that we were as careful as a group of people could be.
In the few years I participated we did not have one accident.
But it was always in the back of my mind that no matter how careful we were,,,
There was always the possibility that something could go wrong.
One time though I got the scare of my life,,,
I shot a "bank robber" square in the chest at about 15' distance,,,
This man should have gotten an Oscar for his realistic death performance.
We didn't use blood packs or any props like that in our scenarios,,,
But his dying performance was so believably realistic,,,
For a few moments I thought I had shot him.
Good people, you simply can not imagine what went through my head in that few moments,,,
Every negative emotion that you can think of went through my mind,,,
It was literally the worst few seconds of my life.
Then the "Marshall" signaled that the shootout scenario was over,,,
When the guy jumped up and waved to the crowd,,,
I almost wet my pants in relief.
I'm not saying that I know exactly what Mr. Baldwin was and is going through,,,
But having been in the same situation (even for just a few seconds),,,
I just can't let myself rag on him for being a Hollywood liberal.
Of course he is "deflecting" and trying to shift blame,,,
But I've seen a lot of good people do exactly the same in other circumstances.
No matter what the outcome of the investigation(s) will bring,,,
He will have to live with the event for the rest of his life.
I simply can't understand how so many of my fellow 2A supporters are treating him.
It's as if they seem somehow glad that this happened at all.
This is my not-so-humble opinion,,,
Roast me for it if you wish to.
Aarond
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