Actor Alec Baldwin fatally shot and killed Halyna Hutchins and wounded his director while filming the upcoming movie, ‘Rust’, on Oct. 21, unaware that the prop gun he held was loaded. While police are still investigating the incident, many questions have been raised. How did this shooting happen? What will happen to the film? And most importantly, who is responsible?

The shooting occurred while Alec Baldwin was rehearsing a scene on set. Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the armorer, or the person in charge of the prop guns, laid three guns on a cart outside the area where the scene would be filmed. Assistant Director Dave Halls gave one of the guns to Baldwin, assuming it was unloaded, which led to the unfortunate accident on set.

However, concerns about gun safety had already existed prior to the shooting. According to crew members, Baldwin’s stunt double also fired a gun after being informed it wasn’t loaded, and nothing about safety protocols was discussed afterwards. While anonymous sources had already complained about the assistant director ignoring safety measures, the shooting raised even more questions about the safety protocols for guns on set and why real guns are used in the first place.

The reason why real guns are used in some films is to emulate live ammunition. These prop guns use blanks, which act like real ammunition, except they don’t use a projectile. However, all firearms on set are still to be treated “as though they are loaded”, according to the Industry-Wide Labor-Management Safety Committee. They are not supposed to be pointed at anyone and should be handled by the armorer.

“I personally think that Alec Baldwin is not one bit responsible for the murder. Movie sets have always used real guns loaded with fake bullets, and there was no reason he wouldn’t have assumed that. Rather it is the poor management of the movie industry that is at fault… there should have been much stricter measures and testing. It’s an unfortunate accident and there should be much more measures to take precautions against similar dangers,” says junior Julie Sun.

There is a reason why these on-set shootings are so rare. Safety protocols on set are usually followed and reinforced almost excessively, so investigators have been thoroughly searching for how and why the shooting could have occurred. Unfortunately, it is difficult to rule whether just one person was responsible or whether it was a result of multiple people involved with the film.

Junior Terra Wu mostly agrees, though they disagree with some points. Terra says, “While I think this incident could have been prevented, I believe it did not happen intentionally. The blame could be directed toward several causes and individuals: the lack of responsibility on the assistant director’s part in handing Baldwin a gun or Baldwin, assuming he did intend to point the gun at Hutchins, but in my opinion, it was mostly poor gun regulation.”

Currently, the investigation has yet to be completed, and according to District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, “no one has been ruled out at this point.”