I quarrel with one certainty, repeated by every expert:
-There is no
way the gun could go off without pulling the trigger.
Contact
explosive. I first saw the effect of this in a statics and dynamics class at
Illinois Institute of Technology. It was a washout course, the professor was a
pedant and someone had poured contact explosive in the chalk powder. I entered
the class late so I missed the explosion. Dr. Messinger proceeded with the
class, each footfall of explosive chalk dust erupting beneath his feet. I
startle easily. It was the worst lecture I ever had.
Given the
nature of movie sets, Baldwins annoying character, and some people like to pull
stunts, it is reasonable that someone hoped to teach Baldwin a lesson. They
painted the back of a live round with contact explosive and waited for it to
dry in the gun. Odds are 5 to 1 that the bullet would make it out of the
revolver. Or perhaps they were careful to position it, making use of an
associate dummy round.
Being a
single action gun, it would have to be cocked before firing. Unless contact
explosive had been applied to a live round. Then the vibration of moving the
gun should be sufficient to set it off. I don’t know if Baldwin had cocked the
revolver. Was Baldwin cocking and uncocking the revolver?
They may
have made use of an already spent shell to reload the round without stamping,
so it would look like it had been struck by the hammer, or maybe it wasn’t
checked.
If the film
was a turkey, there may have been a financial motive. The insurance for the
movie could be an incentive.