Alec Baldwin’s Shooting Exemplifies the Importance of Gun Safety
On October 26th, 2021, actor Alec Baldwin, while filming the coming movie Rust, fired a gun which injured Joel Souzza and killed Halyna Hutchins, two crew members. A search warrant was issued for Baldwin’s cell phone, which was not turned over to authorities until a month after, as reported by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's office. Since Baldwin did not cooperate with the warrant in a timely manner, some interpret this behavior as being uncooperative with law enforcement. Baldwin refutes these statements, stating, “any suggestion that I am not complying with requests or orders or demands or search warrants about my phone, that's bulls*** that's a lie.” An investigation is still underway to determine what exactly occurred during the rehearsal; however, no arrests have been made.
Alec Baldwin’s experience is a prime example of why there are politics associated with the lawful use of firearms. Although the right of owning a firearm is controversial, a need to interact with deadly weapons in a safe, controlled, and educated way is not. Gun safety is a prominent issue which pervades society, as “each year, nearly 500 people die from unintentional firearm injuries—more than one person every single day.” Unfortunately, Baldwin’s case is not an out of the ordinary situation, as incidents like what occurred on set happen quite often. For example, a study conducted by the CDC found that “across all ages, the most common circumstances in which an unintentional gun death occurs are, playing with a gun (28.3%), believing that the gun was not loaded (17.2%), and hunting (13.8%).”
Within all of this conflict, it is vital for citizens to be educated about gun safety. Professionals recommend that firearms need to be secured within a safe, and out of sight, ensuring children or anyone else in a household who is not educated on gun usage can not cause harm. Another recommendation is to keep firearms unloaded. Also, it is important to keep ammunition for firearms in a separate container with a lock. If a firearm is present in your household, taking these safety measures increases your family’s safety, and makes it less stressful for the household.
By Davik Yadav