Safety expert skeptical over Alec Baldwin’s latest claim
(NewsNation) — Speaking with Chris Cuomo on his podcast “The Chris Cuomo Project,” Alec Baldwin broke down what “fanning a gun” can look like, and how that may have contributed to the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchinson on Oct. 21 while filming the movie “Rust.”
“In old Western movies, you would see someone fan the hammer of the gun,” Baldwin said.
If the hammer didn’t lock, and someone pulled it back far enough, it would fire the bullet without someone having to pull the trigger, Baldwin explained.
Gun safety expert Steve Wolf, who has been a stunt coordinator and an armorer on several film sets, told NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield on Tuesday that Baldwin left out important details.
“What Alec didn’t tell you is that in order to have the hammer fall, when you fan a gun, the trigger has to be pressed back. If you fan the gun, nothing happens. If you hold the trigger, then you can find the gun,” Wolf said, while demonstrating what fanning a gun looks like.
Attorney Darren Kavinoky also weighed in, saying that Baldwin talking about the incident is a lawyer’s “absolute nightmare.”
“You never want your client going on to talk about any of the facts unless you have carefully scripted them and reviewed exactly what’s going to be said. This is more likely Situation B, where you’ve just lost total control of your client,” Kavinoky said.