Baldwin shooting reignites gun control debate

Alec Baldwin's tears of sorrow have been witnessed by a nation following the actor's accidental fatal shooting of a colleague on the set of his latest movie, and that same nation has been brought to a fresh reckoning on gun control by the tragedy.

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, died when Baldwin fired a Colt .45 loaded with a real bullet during a rehearsal in New Mexico on Oct 21. Joel Souza, director of the Western Rust, was also wounded.

Baldwin had been told by the film's assistant director that the gun was "cold"－meaning it did not have a live round in the chamber. The actor was photographed in tears outside a police station during the events that followed the shooting.

The accident, which is still under investigation, has prompted calls for a ban on the use of real guns in the filming of TV shows and movies in the United States.

Famous for imitating former US president Donald Trump, Baldwin described the fatal shooting on the film set as a "one in a trillion episode", and he also said he supports limits on the use of real guns during filming.

Against this backdrop, the US Supreme Court last week appeared ready to strike down a restrictive New York gun permitting law, but the justices also seemed worried about issuing a broad ruling that could threaten gun restrictions in places such as subways, bars and stadiums.

The court was hearing arguments in its biggest gun control case in more than a decade, a dispute over whether New York's law violates the constitutional Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms", The Associated Press reported.

The law's defenders have said that striking it down would lead to more guns on the streets of cities including New York and Los Angeles.

At the heart of the issue is the harm caused by the proliferation of guns in the US.

The reignited debate on gun control also reflects the increasing sense of insecurity among people in the US, as well as the rise of domestic terrorism in the country, said Dong Chunling, a research fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

Security concerns

"The unique gun culture and freedom of gun ownership have made the US the country with the most guns per capita," he said. "The proliferation of guns makes violent crimes more likely to occur.

"And at the same time, it increases the risk of extremists using guns for terrorist activities, causing serious security concerns and increasing the risk of 'lone-wolf-style terrorism' attacks."

The US was ranked 36 out of 144 on an index in the 2020 Global Law and Order Report issued by US analytics and advisory company Gallup.

The index uses a composite score based on people's reported confidence in their police, their feelings of personal safety, and the incidence of theft and assault or mugging in the past year. The US scored 85, slightly higher than the average of 82 in the gauge's points system.

Accidents similar to what happened on the set of Rust have occurred in Hollywood's history. In 1993, Brandon Lee, the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, was fatally wounded on a set in which a prop gun was used.

In 2020, US citizens bought 23 million guns in a year marked by an out-of-control COVID-19 outbreak, racial justice protests and election-related conflicts. The gun sales represented a surge of 64 percent from the previous year, according to a report in March.

The violence in society, along with other conflicts, has been fueled by the pent-up anger arising from the political polarization that is tearing the social fabric in the US, Dong said. The proliferation of guns has further increased the harm resulting from such violence, he said.