Veteran armorer rejects Alec Baldwin’s claim he never pulled the trigger

A Hollywood armorer with 30 years of experience rejected Alec Baldwin’s claim he did not pull the trigger of the gun that misfired on the set of Rust, killing one and injuring another.

Steve Wolf, a veteran movie armorer, made his position clear when asked by TheWrap about the likelihood of Baldwin’s statement being true, responding, “On a scale of one to 10? Zero.”

The gun in question is widely reported as a F.LL1 Pietta Long Colt 45 Revolver, a single-action revolver with a very sensitive trigger. Wolf says it is most likely Baldwin did pull the trigger but did not realize he had.

“I believe that he believes what he’s saying, because I don’t believe that he intended to press the trigger,” Wolf said of Baldwin’s claim. “But I also don’t believe that the trigger pressed itself. A single action Colt 45 like that has a very, very light trigger. You know, if you have your finger on the trigger, you can almost think to yourself, ‘shoot’ — and then the gun goes off. But it’s not because you were thinking ‘shoot,’ it’s because you had some muscle tension. And when that increases, it’s sufficient to fire the gun.”

Wolf’s biggest fear is that Baldwin’s defense will set a dangerous precedent for accidental shooting cases, if successful.

”If we introduce the idea that guns go off by themselves, this reduces everyone’s responsibility going forward,” said Wolf. “Anyone who’s ever involved in an accidental shooting can now use the Alec Baldwin defense if it gains any traction, and that’s a really bad thing to do, because it’s untrue. And it takes away personal responsibility, which is the essence of safety.”

Wolf appeared on CNN the morning after the ABC interview to refute Baldwin’s claim the gun went off when he partially cocked the hammer and then let go. He demonstrated how a single-action revolver worked, beginning with how the hammer locks back multiple times while being cocked.

“Click. Click. Click click. When you pull the hammer back and let go, as you can see, I’m not holding this, the hammer doesn’t go anywhere,” Wolf said, showing the cocked revolver to the host.

He has been a guest on CNN before, billed as a “Theatrical Firearms Safety Expert.”

In a podcast with TheWrap last month, Wolf said he has taken actors off the set for shooting practice with live rounds when asked, saying it was not commonplace but also not “unreasonable.” Afterward, the guns would be checked before being returned as set guns, and the live ammunition would never come near the set.

Wolf repeatedly expressed concern over safety, saying the biggest question in his mind was why the guns had not been checked despite multiple opportunities to do so.

“The armorer did not check it, the first AD did not check it and Alec Baldwin did not check it. So there were at least three opportunities where someone could’ve checked the gun,” Wolf said.

He also said the sabotage claim by Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was “sinister” because it detracted from personal responsibility.

The Santa Fe, New Mexico Sheriff’s Department, which is investigating the accident, also pushed back on the idea Baldwin did not pull the trigger.

“Guns don’t just go off,” Sheriff Adan Mendoza told Fox News. “So whatever needs to happen to manipulate the firearm, he did that and it was in his hands.”

The department is awaiting results from the FBI which would shed light on how the gun could have been fired, whether that was just pulling back the hammer, just pulling the trigger, or both.