Greg Gutfeld: Alec Baldwin shooting was a sad, but preventable, tragedy

On Thursday, actor and gun control activist Alec Baldwin accidentally killed a cinematographer on the set of the western he was filming in New Mexico. As the news dribbles out, we see how many things went wrong. 

Now we hear that the gun had actually been used for target practice by the so-called expert – yikes. And it may have had live ammo – double yikes. And that it was pointed at a person – triple yikes! That’s a huge no-no and one of the most basic tenets of gun safety. You don't have to be an NRA member to know that.

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The firearm also wasn't checked each step of the way from handoff to handoff. All of these tragic errors are based on carelessness, inexperience, lack of safety protocols. They might as well put Hunter Biden in charge of the medicine cabinet.

It could be they were in a hurry to save money. It could be they were cutting corners. Either way, it was a highly preventable screw-up. Having an expert on gun safety would have changed that. It seems, at least to me, that's what was lacking.

But where do those experts come from? I'd say, the NRA. But you might as well say "IRA " if you’re telling that to Hollywood gun control activists. They'd rather take gun training from Charlie Sheen in a hot tub full of mayonnaise.

So fat chance anyone from the NRA would be invited to a movie set where Baldwin was the producer. Kat would have a better chance guest hosting "Special Report."

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And so we find another instance where the prison of two ideas creates problems. If there was an NRA person on set, this would never have happened. But no one in charge would do that because in the prison of two ideas, gun control – good, The NRA – evil. 

And that dictates that you're either a gun control activist, like Alec Baldwin, or you're an evil gun owner like me. And that excludes real expertise. If the two-prison idea didn't exist, the set would have benefited from the NRA's hardcore focus on safety and could have saved a life.

It's like a homophobe not asking his gay neighbor, who's an interior designer, to help him decorate his apartment. In the long run he's only hurting himself. Instead of getting laid all the time, girls are gonna take one look at his neon Budweiser sign and shag rug, and say, "enjoy your hand."

We still don’t know what truly happened, but it's becoming clearer and clearer. Perhaps the people who work in the world of make-believe want nothing to do with reality's true experts. Anti-gun advocates hate gun advocates because of a projection of their own insecurities. It’s not that they don’t trust gun people with guns, it’s that they don’t trust themselves with guns, therefore it should not exist at all.

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Last week we talked about a segregated dorm of women and trans people who were upset when cisnormative - i.e. straight - repairmen came to install new radiators for their rooms to anticipate an Ohio winter. You'd think there's nothing worse than a male or female freezing their balls off. But no – it's straight men trying to help you stay warm. The dormies didn't want their world infringed by another different world. They felt unsafe with a straight man in their midst. What would they have preferred? Do the work themselves?

That's like handling a gun on a set with no expert. You see, it's all the same. That if you segregate your world based on ideas or identities, you lose out on experience, wisdom and expertise of the groups you're avoiding. Here's a chart.

The first one shows the prison of two ideas. No information sharing. The second one shows them overlapping. That's how wisdom and know-how spreads – pretty simple stuff. But this simple phenomenon is being prevented as a consequence of the elitist thirst for separation and conflict. And it's happening everywhere – from campus housing to Hollywood.

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There are millions of amazing people who know how to deliver cargo, repair trucks, build bridges, and handle guns – but what if they're straight? Or Trump supporters? Or religious? Or meat-eaters?  Or put pineapple on their pizza?

It's the baby and the bathwater – you divorce yourself from different people, you divorce yourself from their invaluable assistance. And you end up clueless and stupid. Meaning, a college student.

Just the way the professional sports world benefited from desegregating, the set of Baldwin’s movie could have benefitted from an NRA member’s experience and knowledge. I'm sure the NRA would have gladly volunteered an expert to oversee safety protocols. You probably could have found a liberal one, too. But no one thought of that.

Because NRA bad. Gun control good. 

It's unfortunate a tragedy like this had to happen before maybe somebody on a movie set says "sure he voted for Trump, but he can clean his AR-15 blindfolded."

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But I prefer to live in a world where people know how to control the guns they have, rather than people having guns and have no control at all. Hiring a gun lover would've threatened their safe space, but without them, it became a deadly one. 

So maybe if you’re gunna film using real guns, reconsider your anti-gun ideology. Allow real experts to be involved so you can expertly shoot movies, not colleagues.

This article is adapted from Greg Gutfeld's opening monologue on the October 25, 2021 edition of "Gutfeld!"