It wasn't entirely his fault; a third maybe and it was not his intention he wasn't paying attention. The sheer grief I suspect he's feeling is punishment enough.
From what has come out, he flagrantly disregarded enough rules of gun safety that it is on him. He treated it like a toy, and wound up with a consequence that was entirely avoidable had he been more responsible.
....because he was told it was a toy. Did he make a mistake, certain... is ALL the blame on him? No. I'm not trying to defend him; I'm just pointing out how much of the blame he deserves. Every person fucked this one up; from the armorer to the producer to the wads that went off firing it in the desert for no reason. Should he have checked, of course... but you also have to remember he was on set trying to get a scene done. That costs a lot of money; hence the hiring of the armorer. Him checking the gun isn't exactly his job. Safety maintenance with guns though, can never be too careful.
He is a producer of his own film. That loop comes back to bite him in the ass, especially since the film crew has had MULTIPLE instances of firearms being improperly handled even before he responded to being asked to do another take by saying to this effect: "You mean like this?" and proceeded to POINT the gun at someone, and PULLED the trigger.
He was told it was a cold gun, which means a toy prop gun that doesn’t use blanks, no chemical reaction no projectile. The term “live round” in the film industry means a blank, a cold gun doesn’t use those.
Generally there are 2 kinds of “cold guns.”
One that can not access ammunition and physically cannot fire them, a toy with a fake trigger, and then also could be a normal real gun with nothing in the chamber, the cylinder/magazine/etc.
This is primarily the fault of the proper master and the armourer however, according to “attorney Tom” a real life lawyers specialized in grevious injury cases, the producers, meaning Baldwin as well, could be liable because the propmaster had a history of safety complains on other sets and the armourer was inexperienced, not to mention crew walked out of the set before this over a previous cold gun being hot and two blanks being fired accidentally
The more information that comes out the fucking crazier this story gets. I'm just gonna stop talking until I have all the info. But, yeah, being one of the producers, and I think executive producer? That's where the damage will come from. Especially if hiring her (the armorer) was his decision. That could have been passed off to someone beneath him and he signed off without knowing her... just a random "sure, whatever". That's a mistake if you are an executive producer. The crew members that went firing the gun off before are also screwed, as is the armorer. This seriously takes a long chain of events to happen; especially if he shot her through a wall. He wouldn't even know she was there unless he can hear like a bat.
Generally there are 2 kinds of “cold guns.”
One that can not access ammunition and physically cannot fire them, a toy with a fake trigger, and then also could be a normal real gun with nothing in the chamber, the cylinder/magazine/etc.
This is primarily the fault of the proper master and the armourer however, according to “attorney Tom” a real life lawyers specialized in grevious injury cases, the producers, meaning Baldwin as well, could be liable because the propmaster had a history of safety complains on other sets and the armourer was inexperienced, not to mention crew walked out of the set before this over a previous cold gun being hot and two blanks being fired accidentally