Anyone who thought the use of the movie guns for plinking was even a tiny bit ok needs to have their head examined.
I don't know that the idea of using the guns for plinking was automatically bad, but the way they DID IT certainly was.
I've been a unit armorer. When proper procedures are in place, AND FOLLOWED, it works and is safe.
GUN gets checked out of secure storage to someone (a specific individual) A record is kept of who and what gun.
Gun gets checked back in by that individua, not just "dropped off"l. Gun gets inspected PRIOR to return to storage. ANYTHING wrong, the individual it was checked out to gets called to account. Damage, live ammo left in the gun, anything wrong, you have a name to go to about it.
In a military arms room, the armorer won't accept the gun back if it has ammo in it. OR dirty, or damaged. The gun is inspected right there, with the guy returning it standing there, (and not allowed to leave) until the gun is accepted by the armorer.
Clearly this was not the case on the movie set.
But exactly what was the case, we don't have an official statement about, yet. We have reports from "people who were there" or "were in a postion to know" being anonymously quoted by various news and quasi news reports. Damn few facts. And the latest round of statements I've seen quoted SEEMS to be a "circling of the wagons" to protect Baldwin as much as possible, from people who's names are given and various things attacking him, and his production company from people who's names are not being given. (or not at this time, given)
I'm actually rather surprised that so far, nothing I've seen suggests the possibility of deliberate sabotage. There was a lot of tension involved, lots of people were very unhappy. Union people don't walk off jobs because they are happy.
Considering what has already been reported about the physical security of the firearms onsite, I think it possible some "disgruntled employee" COULD have deliberately slipped a live round into a gun, with the intent of causing an accident that would shut down production. This would, of course, be a serious criminal act, and possibly deserving of a murder conviction IF enough facts could be proven.
it's not likely, but its not impossible to rule out, at this time, with the information available.
Some of the players involved have now had enough time to get their collective stories straight and plausibly matching. Whether or not these are the actual truth is still to be determined.
I think I've stirred the discussional pot enough for the moment, lets see what bubbles up next.