MSNBC host Joe Scarborough warned Thursday that the tragedy on Alec Baldwin’s “Rust” movie set occurred because everyone failed to follow basic gun safety practices.
Scarborough argued that no matter what anyone on the set told him, Baldwin should have personally inspected any firearm he was handed to verify that it was not loaded and was safe to use for the scene. (RELATED: ‘Their Product Is Killing Teenage Girls!’: Joe Scarborough Pins Blame On Congress In Emotionally-Charged Anti-Facebook Rant)
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Cohost Willie Geist introduced the segment, saying that he had recently interviewed an actor on the topic of firearm safety for his Sunday show and most sets required very extensive checks.
“They open the chamber, they spin it, they show you every open chamber and they show you the rounds and make sure it’s not a live round to the point of — it’s ridiculous how safe these sets are and he was grateful for that, and was just stunned and saddened to hear that this has happened,” Geist added.
“The other half of what you’re saying is that the actor is supposed to look and see and feel safe with the gun,” cohost Mika Brzezinski said.
Scarborough jumped in then, noting that according to reports, the gun in question had been handled by several people on the “Rust” set.
“This is something we talked about a few days ago. Anybody that’s ever been around a handgun or any gun. Again, rule number one, you never pointed at anybody but rule number two, you always assume the gun is loaded, you always assume that,” Scarborough continued. “You always check and you check and see if it’s a hot gun or not. You look in the chamber. That’s the first step. I can’t say it enough. Like I said before, that’s the equivalent of getting your keys and opening a door before you even go into the car, those are the basics. The fact you had three people who had custody of the gun.”
Scarborough went on to say that no matter what they were told, everyone who handled the gun at any point should have stopped to check again and make sure that there were no live rounds present.
“All of those people, if they ever handled guns before would have checked every chamber,” he added. “The thing is you do it two or three times. It’s like a nervous tic, you almost feel stupid the second or third time you check to see if the gun is hot or not,” he said.