Michael Massee, the actor who unfortunately will forever be known as the man who accidentally shot and killed Brandon Lee on the set of the 1994 film The Crow, has died. He was 61.
Films should not be an exception to the basic rules of firearm safety.
- Treat every gun as if it is loaded.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until you are going to shoot.
- Never point the gun at anything you aren't willing to destroy.
- Know your target and what is beyond your target, you are responsible for these.
*** I'll add to that, the following:
Upon taking possession of a firearm, with the gun pointed in the safest direction possible, inspect the gun to visually verify that the chamber is empty, or visually confirm beyond any possible doubt that the appropriate blanks are in the gun.
this SHOULD include redundancy.
The firearm safety coordinator should demonstrate to the actor the status of the gun, visually demonstrating if it is loaded
AND
the actor upon taking possession should again perform his/her own inspection, including removing the magazine and racking the slide and/or inspecting blanks and doing a test fire with the blank round prior to filming.
This has got to be already standard protocol, because I can't imagine studios and insurance companies would risk millions of dollars by NOT having appropriate safety measure in place.
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Actors who use guns in film should be required to know and practice these rules.
Brandon Lee and the person Alec Baldwin shot, would likely both still be alive if everyone who ever touched those guns on set followed these rules.
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