First, its 2021 (at the time) 100% faithful non firing prop guns have been around for a LONG time. Even real guns modified so they won't accept live ammo have been around for a LONG time. Why did they "need" to use real, functional firearms, at all??
Using actual guns and NOT strictly following ALL the guild and common sense rules was flat out WRONG.
Swirling in the chaos of reported (not necessarily factual) post shooting information
Allegedly, there were three "guns" laying on the bench unsupervised.
One inert composite dummy, one modified to accept only blanks,and the fully functional SAA clone that Baldwin fired. Why was that?
One other far fetched possibility, and it IS a possibility.......
There was a lot of tension on the set. In part,it was about lack of gun safety. Apparently there had been a few "misfires"
I probably have this timeline wrong, but that day Halya was killed,
the story goes:
There was an informal,live ammo target shooting session.
The guns were unsupervised on a bench
A majority of the crew walked off the set due to grievances. Gun safety among them.
Now....Most of us have heard of some evil psycho going to a gun show and slipping a live round into a gun on a table and walking away.
No,I don't know that a crew member with a grievance loaded the gun.
I'd say its unlikely. But its still a way to explain what has not been explained.
How did a live round get put in the cylinder?