Hollywood: 200 Cinematographers Effect Change by Signing Pledge To Never Work With Real Guns Again

A collection of 200 prominent cinematographers joined together to sign a group statement calling for a ban on functional firearms on the sets of their projects. 
The move comes in the wake of the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was shot and killed on the set of “Rust” when a gun being held by actor Alec Baldwin that he was informed as a “cold gun” somehow fired a live round. 
The incident has sparked a huge conversation in show business regarding the use of real firearms on sets, regardless of whether or not they’re loaded with blanks or dummy rounds.

In the open letter explaining the decision, the group directly references the death of Hutchins. 

“Halyna Hutchins was an incredible rising cinematographer who passionately loved her job and cared about the images she created. She was a friend, a colleague, a part of our cinematography community. Her death on October 21, 2021 by a live firearm expelled on the set of the film ‘Rust’ was senseless, negligent and avoidable,” the statement reads.
“We are Halyna Hutchins’ fellow  Directors of Photography and we are vowing to not let her death be in vain. We are calling for immediate action from our union leadership, our producers and our lawmakers to affect unified change on our behalf: BAN all FUNCTIONAL FIREARMS on set.”

From there, the letter declares that those who signed it have therefore pledged to use alternatives like VFX rather than allow real firearms on their sets, regardless of what they’re loaded with.
“We vow to no longer knowingly work on projects using FUNCTIONAL FIREARMS for filming purposes. We vow to no longer put ourselves and our crew in these unnecessarily lethal situations. We have safe alternatives in VFX and NON-functional FIREARMS. We won’t wait for the industry to change. We have a duty to effect change within the industry ourselves,” the statement adds.