Houston Chronicle

Vexing questions remain about what actually happened on the set of a movie being made near Santa Fe, N.M., when an antique Colt .45 discharged as it was being used as a prop by actor Alec Baldwin during rehearsal of a scene. A projectile from the revolver struck and killed Halyna Hutchins, director of photography on the movie, a Western called “Rust.” Joel Souza, the director, was standing beside Hutchins and was injured.

The tragic incident prompted understandable anguish on the part of all who knew Hutchins. Ongoing police investigations are asking how a gun that was declared “cold” — that is, safe to fire — as it was handed to Baldwin could have killed someone.

What happened on the movie set also should prompt serious soul-searching far beyond the movie industry. Texas elected officials, careless in their Second Amendment convictions and craven in their kowtowing to gun-rights zealots, come to mind immediately.

Similar accidents on movie sets have happened before, although they are rare, thanks in large part to strict safety rules.

Film makers today are expected to rigidly adhere to page after page of detailed regulations regarding firearms on set. Their bible, so to speak, is “Safety Bulletin” No. 1, posted anytime a set will involve the use of firearms .

In the very first paragraph, the document admonishes: “BLANKS CAN KILL.”

The bulletin goes on to lay out comprehensive instructions for firearms protocol. The general rules include never pointing a firearm at anyone; never placing your finger on the trigger until you’re ready to shoot; and never laying down a firearm or leaving it unattended. ifics.

Those basic instructions, of course, are well-established rules familiar to all who deal with firearms regularly, from law enforcement officers to the military.

While cops, soldiers, NRA firearms instructors and responsible gun owners — not to mention Hollywood filmmakers — are usually dead serious about firearms, Texas lawmakers are not.

A responsible elected official would not have supported legislation in the previously concluded session that makes it almost as easy for an adult Texan to walk into a sporting-goods store and purchase a gun as it is to buy a fishing rod or a camping tent.

Make your choice, put down your credit card and pass a perfunctory background check, and you’re not only a gun owner but fully authorized to carry it with you just about anywhere you want to go. No licensing needed. Just grab that gun and go.

No wonder so many Texas police chiefs opposed the so-called permitless-carry legislation that Gov. Greg Abbott signed in June.

Firearms are ubiquitous on movie sets; deaths and injuries are rare. Firearms are ubiquitous in American society, particularly in Texas and the South; deaths and injuries are anything but rare.

In 2020, gun violence killed nearly 20,000 Americans, the highest total in two decades, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. And the state with the highest number of gun deaths in 2020, in 2019, and many years before that? That would be Texas with 3,683 last year.

Mortality data from 2019, shows that even on a per-capita basis, gunshots kill more Texans each year than in America’s other largest states.

In the wake of the tragic New Mexico incident, the movie industry is already considering even stricter rules. Given Texas’ terrible track record of deadly shootings, a Texas lawmaker truly committed to the public’s safety would be looking for solutions, too. Worthy ideas abound.

If only ideas and common sense were enough. They aren’t though, not without political courage.