Back in '91-92 I was a sophomore in high school and was taking a Spanish class. For a project, we had to write and act out a stupid little skit in Spanish, basically like a mini play with props and the works. Close buddy of mine - in a different class - decided his team were going to act out some little Conquistador scene. His family had this decrepit looking old replica flintlock pistol mounted to a wooden plaque over their mantle. He thought it would make a cool prop so he brought it to school and used it for the skit. The entire day he'd be walking the halls between classes and jokingly pointing it and pulling the trigger at us as we went from class to class. Apparently no teachers decided an old replica was a big deal and no one made an issue out of it. So after school him and some other friends were hanging out and probably getting stoned. Just like during the school day, he would occasionally 'shoot' one of them with it. The last time he pulled the trigger the fucking thing went off. Turns out it apparently wasn't a replica after all. He shot one of our friends in the chest at maybe 5 feet away, killing him. Could have just as easily been me or any one of 20 other people he pointed it at. He spent like 6 months in an institution after that before he could effectively cope again. I personally think Alec Baldwin is a bit of a scumfuck, but even with my ambivalence toward guns I don't really think any sense of justice would be served by prosecuting him for an accident that he couldn't have reasonably foreseen. I didn't exactly take a deep dive on this situation, though, so maybe there are more damning details I'm unaware of.
abcnews.go.com
