"The actor is not ALLOWED to open the action. If he does so the weapon must immediately go back to whoever is in charge of the prop. Even if he was somehow able to tell what is in there magically, he's still not allowed to.
#75 | POSTED BY VICTORZIBLIS AT 2023-01-21 02:15 AM | FLAG: "
The "person in charge of the prop" should be standing right there, and IMO, the armorer should open the action, remove the ammo and demonstrate to the actor that the weapon is safe when it is handed to the actor. That is what we do with police training guns, every, single, time. When we take a break and return to the training area, we clear and verify again. . The actor (And anyone else on set) has the right to request that.
Both Baldwin AND the Director who was killed had the opportunity to request to inspect the weapon. Neither did, but that is their right not their responsibility. It would be pointless (and create a false sense of security) for an untrained person to inspect a weapon. That responsibility rests with the armorer.
As others have Said, the bigger picture is that the set was out of control and rules were not followed. As a "producer", Baldwin has some overall responsibility for that, but the 1st AD generally has the primary responsibility to runs the set. (Dave Hall) . He is also the one who handed the gun to Baldwin, and likely s the person who assigned the armorer other prop duties so she wasn't available to properly maintain control of the guns.
The armorer should have flat out refused to accept other duties and abandon protocol, The ammo sourcing (multiple sources) was frighteningly sloppy. Plenty of blame to go around.