Alec Baldwin fatally shoots woman with prop gun on movie set
What a horrible story. My condolences to the families.
I grew up shooting. When I was a boy, my dad took me to a range on a military base every week. I was surrounded by gruff old men who would yell at you if you did the slightest thing wrong. Shooting without checking that everyone had their ear protection on was enough to get reamed out.
Guns were serious business, and you’d better follow the rules!
The idea of goofing off with a gun was conditioned out of me.
Consequently, I’ve never liked things that are almost guns — like BB guns. People treat them as toys. I believe there should be a sharp distinction between things that are obviously toys and things that are obviously guns.
I don’t know much about prop guns, but in an age of CGI and such, I don’t see why they’re necessary. You can add the flash and the smoke later.
When I was a kid, toy guns were very common. And back then, they were often made to look a lot like real guns. After I no longer had any interest in toys (about the age of 11 or 12?), a friend of mine used to take turns shooting a BB gun in a lot next to his house. As I recall, we set up some bottles as target. Never did I shoot a real gun until I was in my mid 20s, and that was just a 22. I just shot it once and didn’t quite understand the thrill. My father had absolutely no interest in guns (or camping, hunting, or any of that stuff for that matter, though he did love to gamble at the card table), and actually I don’t remember a lot of people who did have much of an interest in them, except your more rural types. I guess I like things the way the were back then: toy guns for little kids, BB guns for big kids, and real guns for country bumpkins. But those days are long gone.
Shooting bottles with a BB gun is not a good idea.
It’s not really that there’s a “thrill” to shooting. It’s a question of developing a skill. Like throwing darts, or golfing.
We got away with a lot of petty mischief back then. The same guy had an older brother who put a big stack of Playboy magazines in the garage. So we looked at those whenever we weren’t being naughty doing other things. Boys will be boys.
But for a lot of people there is a thrill in shooting. I quote from the Eagles:
He saw it in a window
The mark of a new kind of man
He kinda liked the feeling, so shiny and smooth in his hand
He took it to the country and practiced for days without rest
And then one day he felt it
He knew he could stand with the best