Alright y’all, let me break this mess down for you in plain English—because apparently, common sense has left the building.
In 2021, during the filming of Rust, a low-budget western flick, Alec Baldwin was doing his thing—acting, directing, being Alec Baldwin—when tragedy struck. He was rehearsing a scene and got handed a gun that, according to everyone on set, was supposed to be empty or loaded with blanks. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. That thing went off, killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, and wounded the director, Joel Souza. Total nightmare. Nobody saw it coming, and nobody wanted it to happen. It was a perfect storm of mistakes that turned into a tragedy.
Now, the legal system jumped in like a wild rodeo, trying to figure out who to pin this on. And who did they come for? Not Alec Baldwin, oh no. The rich white dude who was literally playing with the gun when it went off? His charges were dismissed with prejudice—and you know what, that was probably the right move. He was handed a gun and told it was safe. Dude was rehearsing a scene, not spinning it like a Wild West gunslinger. So, yeah, the charges were dropped like a bad habit. He’s walking free. Should he be held accountable in some way? Sure, maybe in civil court, but criminally? Nah, that wasn’t his role.
But let’s talk about who they did charge—Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on set. Now, let me explain something to you: this woman’s job was to make sure the guns on set were safe. And yeah, she messed up. I’m not here to sugarcoat it—she didn’t do her job right. Somewhere along the way, a live bullet ended up in a gun that was supposed to be a prop. Not a good look. But here’s the kicker—did she mean to hurt anyone? Was she out here plotting, twirling a villainous mustache, thinking, “I’mma get someone today!”? Hell no. It was a tragic accident.
Yet, somehow, this accident has landed her in prison. Yep, you read that right. Hannah got slapped with an involuntary manslaughter charge, found guilty, and now she’s sitting in prison for 18 months. For what? For making a mistake at work. Listen, if we’re locking people up for messing up at their jobs, then half of corporate America better start packing their bags for a cellblock, because I’ve seen people fumble Zoom meetings harder than this.
Prison, folks, is supposed to be for people who pose a danger to society—people who can’t get their lives together or who are out here committing crimes on purpose. But Hannah? She’s no criminal mastermind. She’s just someone who didn’t do her job right on one of the worst days imaginable. Sure, she deserves some consequences—pay some fines, lose her job, whatever—but prison? That’s overkill. We’re talking about an accident. It wasn’t intentional, and it wasn’t reckless to the point of criminal negligence. It was a mess-up, not a felony.
And let’s be real about something else. Does throwing Hannah in the slammer make anyone safer? I mean, are we all walking around breathing a little easier knowing the woman who didn’t check the prop guns properly is locked away? Of course not! This doesn’t fix anything. Halyna Hutchins is still gone, her family is still grieving, and society is no better off. You know what might actually help? Maybe we improve safety protocols on movie sets so we don’t have real bullets floating around in the first place. How about that?
But nooo, instead of fixing the problem, we’re just playing a blame game. And because, let’s be honest, it was a pretty white woman who died, someone’s gotta pay the price. And who’s the easiest target? The armorer who’s at the bottom of the Hollywood food chain. They went after her like a lion on a zebra because, well, she didn’t have a big-name lawyer or a million-dollar face to hide behind.
Let me say this loud and clear: civil charges? Totally fair. Accidents have consequences, and someone’s gotta be held accountable when things go wrong. But criminal charges? That’s a whole other level of crazy. We’re abusing the legal system to scratch this itch for justice, but we’re not actually serving anyone by locking her up. Halyna’s family isn’t getting closure from this. The public isn’t any safer. And Hannah isn’t some menace that needs to be locked away. She made a mistake—a tragic, costly mistake—but it doesn’t make her a criminal.
So let’s cut the nonsense. Locking people up for accidents is not how the system is supposed to work. We can’t go throwing people in prison because we want to feel like we’ve “done something.” Sometimes, bad things happen because the world is messy, not because someone needs to be punished. Let’s reserve the prison cells for folks who actually deserve it, and stop acting like every accident needs a fall guy. Because, trust me, next time you spill your coffee on your boss’s laptop, you might just be looking at 18 months in the clink.
