FBI Forensics weigh in on Baldwin shooting

| August 14, 2022

Been waitin’ on this one… the FBI forensics report on the Colt Pietta clone from the Alec Baldwin shooting came in.

According to a press release, the Santa Fe Sheriffs’ detectives received the FBI’s completed forensic reports on Aug. 2. They were then forwarded to the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) “for review.

As expected by anyone who knows anything about good-quality modern Colt copies, the report was definitive:

Accidental discharge testing determined that the firearm used in the shooting — a .45 Colt (.45 Long Colt) caliber F.lli Pietta single-action revolver — could not have fired without the trigger being pulled, the FBI report shows.

With the hammer in the quarter- and half-cock positions, the gun “could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger,” the report stated.

With the hammer fully cocked, the gun “could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger while the working internal components were intact and functional,” the report stated.

Doonesbury May 29,1973

That’s gonna leave a mark!

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Tallywhagger

Maybe the D.T.s caused his trigger finger to spasm a couple of times and then kaboom!

Just imagine if Sean Penn had been there.

Sapper3307

He bought a small farm near Woodstock Vermont as a hideout recently. Its bad enough we have that freak from the FLASH movie now also.

Graybeard

Unsurprised.
Too bad he wasn’t looking down the barrel when the ND occurred.

The Stranger

We all know that nothing is going to happen to this asshole from a criminal standpoint. The only way he’ll pay is in a civil court from a wrongful death lawsuit. What I do hope is that his temper causes him to start some shit with the wrong person and he gets put down permanently.

26Limabeans

He will sue somebody.

KoB

Yep, you’re right, Pappy. We said that in the beginning. He’ll skate, continue on his talk show circus, throw the prop master under the bus, declare bankruptcy for his production company and enter therapy for his PTSofD.

May the Barbed Cock of Satan torment him for all eternity while his worthless soul burns in Hell.

Hack Stone

Cut the guy some slack. He hasn’t killed anyone for ten months, but you guys want to live in the past.

Hack Stone recalls that televised interview following the shooting, and he said something along the line of “When someone hands you a weapon that has been declared cleared, you are NOT supposed to verify that by inspecting it yourself.” Don’t know about you, but every time that Hack Stone pulled a weapon from the armory, the armorer would clear the weapon, hand it to Hack, and Hack would clear. Reverse the procedures when turning in the weapon.

The Stranger

There you go trying to inject common sense into this. Bad Hack, bad!

NDHoosier

Yeah, we can’t take Hack Stone anywhere….

26Limabeans

Even my non vet firearm owning friends insist on that procedure or they won’t hand you a weapon in the first place.
First place I saw it taught was freshman high school.
The Horror!

A Proud Infidel®™

Hack Stone, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING, expecting a rich, pampered Hollywierd airhead to follow common sense and logic? Nothing is ever their fault!

NDHoosier

Here is the absolutely amazing part of the forensics report: the FBLie didn’t find any evidence proving that Donald Trump pulled the trigger. However, the Fraudulent Blowhard Incompetents will realize they need another search warrant to stage another panty raid on Melania’s closet.

Coffeypot

Wait!!! He’s a Socialist Democrat. The FBI will award him a Marksmanship Medal.

Anonymous

Alec F’-ed up.

Tallywhagger

Alec is a Bernathian.

M48DAT

Just admit you effed up and get your ass chewing.

trackback

[…] This ain’t Hell… discusses the FBI report on the Alec Baldwin shooting […]

Old tanker

It is nice they acknowledge that the gun won’t fire unless the trigger is pulled. What they forgot to add, and what makes it even more of an intentional act, is that the hammer has to be manually cocked before the trigger can be pulled to fire the weapon. That makes 2 distinct and separate acts to make the weapon discharge. Can we say aggravated negligence? I knew you could.

jeff LPH 3 63-66

In the past when the shooting occured, the transfer bar came up in the comments after i forgot what it was called and called it a hammer block and was corrected on the goof. I mentioned that our service S&W Mod 10’s had the bar and we had a demonstration from our armorer who hammered the shit out of the hammer which broke and the bar prevented the firing pin from setting off a round if their was one in the empty chamber. I googled at the time after one of the members mentioned that the gun may not have had the bar if it was an older model. I looked at the older model and newer model and the parts diagram had the bar on the newer model and no bar on the older model. Only one person I heard on the news who was an expert mentioned the bar and the half dozen or so never brought it up and most likely weren’t familiar with the workings.

rgr769

In the circumstances of this accident, the transfer bar is irrelevant. In both the traditional SAA and the one with the transfer mechanism, the trigger has to be pulled to drop the hammer and have it strike the firing pin or the primer on the cartridge. On the movie set they likely had both styles because they would likely have scenes where the cocked hammer is visible and for authenticity you would want the traditional hammer with the fixed firing pin. Since they were blocking a scene where there was a close up of the pistol, it would be likely they would use the traditional SAA and not the transfer bar model with its bazaar looking hammer.

You need to handle a SAA so you will understand how the trigger and hammer mechanism are completely different than a double action revolver. It doesn’t matter whether the Pietta in question had the transfer bar or not. Baldwin had to fully cock and pull or hold back the trigger for the hammer to fall and set of the round in the chamber.

rgr769

As I previously explained, on a SAA with or without a hammer blocking or transfer bar mechanism, the hammer must be fully drawn back or cocked in the full cock position for the cylinder and cartridge primer to align with the firing pin or pin hole (depending on whether the gun has a floating firing pin–Rugers all have floating firing pins as do the transfer bar Piettas). In order for the pistol to fire, Baldwin had to draw the hammer (of either type) back to full cock position and then have pulled the trigger. Alternatively, he could have been holding the trigger back and then released the hammer from full cock position, and the SAA would fire.

This is why you can fan fire a SAA. But each time in fanning the hammer, the trigger must be held or tied back and the hammer must be fully drawn back to full cock position before thumb release or the firing pin won’t align and hit the primer. Quick draw shooters have raised fanning hammers and hold back the trigger while fanning.

jeff LPH 3 63-66

Got it rgr769, thanks for the info. on your comments and explaining fanning, I completely forgot about how it was done. Never owned a SAA.

Hack Stone

If you want a real cringe worthy moment when it comes to handling firearms, during the live broadcast of the George Zimmerman trial, the Prosecutor passed the weapon around to the jury, and at no point was the weapon ever cleared in that courtroom.

26Limabeans

I would have sniffed it for powder residue or at least a hint
of Hoppes No.9

James Haltom

And Gomer Pyle said “Surprise, surprise, surprise”, Not.

rgr769

Just as I opined without ever having handled the subject weapon. All single action pistols require the trigger to be pulled or held back for the hammer to fall.

Anonymous

It was an evil Assault SAA that went off by itself, Alec will have you know! Bad SAA!

SKYJUMPER

As soon as Baldwin said he hadn’t cocked the pistol or squeezed the trigger, I knew he was lying.

I have a black powder Pietta 1851 Navy Colt that is similar to his pistol.

I’ve demonstrated to a number of friends as the only way this revolver could be fired was that the trigger had to be pulled all the way to rear and then squeeze the trigger.

First click when the hammer is pulled back allows the cylinders to rotate and to be loaded. You can squeeze the trigger all day long, and the hammer will not go forward.

Second click, the cylinder is locked and can’t be rotated and again, you can squeeze the trigger all day long, and the hammer will not go forward.

Third click, the pistol is now ready to fire and when the trigger is squeezed, the hammer goes forward.

Typical lying piece of Hollywood liberal scheiße.

rgr769

You mid-replied. I am sure you meant “pulled the hammer all the way back….”

SKYJUMPER

Now don’t go “triggering” me rgr769.  😂 

Good catch…..lost something along the way from my brains to my typing finger.

rgr769

Also, not to be pedantic, but there is no third click on a Colt percussion revolver or any of their reproductions, like your 1851 Navy. The first hammer click brings the pistol to half cock, the second is full cock. Whereas SAA’s have a first click which is the weak-ass safety notch in the hammer. The second is half-cock freeing the cylinder for loading, and the third is full-cock.

rgr769

Here is another little technical factoid. If Baldwin was holding the trigger back when he pulled the hammer back to the full-cock position he would not have heard the third click, as there wouldn’t have been one. But releasing the hammer in full-cock position while still holding back the trigger would allow the pistol to fire. Baldwin did one or the other to fire. He either pulled the trigger while the gun was fully cocked, or he held the trigger back while dropping the hammer. We will never know which it was, without an admission from him.

RGR 4-78

He may be so inept at utilizing firearms he may not know what he actually did.

rgr769

Well, I don’t think he has been in any other Westerns, so he likely had no prior experience with SAA’s. Plus, I suspect he has the mechanical skills of a baboon.

e.conboy

Well, that certainly answers my question. Thanks.

Anonymous
e.conboy

May I please ask a question? Does it really matter what AB says he recalls he did in regard to cocking? Isn’t he the one who had the pistol in his hand and whether or not he remembers, the weapon was fired resulting in the loss of a life? I don’t understand why a real and loaded firearm was on set where a bunch of nincompoops were playing with it, much less AB hizzelf. Hollyweird!

rgr769

No, a jury could find Baldwin negligent just for his failure to examine the gun before the shooting or pointing it directly at the director and pulling the trigger.

Real guns are regularly used on sets, especially for closeups. Plus, they can be easily modified to shoot blanks.

poetrooper

Forensics aren’t going to matter, Counselor, in the Coastal Progressives Republic of Santa Fe.

It would be akin to convicting him in Austin or Berkeley, where criminal guilt is a matter of one’s political affiliations.

Sad but true…

Skivvy Stacker

I always get a kick out of reading Steven King stories where the protagonist has a revolver in his hand, and he fires it, but somehow manages to drop it, and when it hits the ground it goes off again sending a bullet bouncing all over the room.
Or the writer who kept saying that a .45 kept kicking high and causing the round to miss BEFORE the trigger was pulled.
If you don’t know anything about guns, keep your dumbass, no account, no load, fuck stick hands off of them.

rgr769

Agree. Fiction, print,TV, or movies, are mostly written by those who know little or nothing about firearms. Ditto for the news bitches.

poetrooper

Having lived the better part of a decade in conservative southern New Mexico, ol’ Poe’s here to tell you once again, that regardless of the evidence, there’s no way in hell the coastal elite liberal Dems who control most of northern New Mexico, are gonna convict a politically outspoken, Hollywood Trump-hater for this fairly obvious criminal negligence, even if he did kill someone.

Regardless of what FBI forensics say, the fix is in…

rgr769

Well, living there, you would know.