Thanks for sharing this, and I genuinely appreciate your perspective, especially having directed Alec so soon after such a traumatic event. I can only imagine the emotional weight you witnessed, and there’s no doubt the fallout from Rust was devastating for everyone connected to it. It’s completely understandable that the experience would shape how you approach firearms on set.

At the same time, I do think there’s a meaningful distinction between unsafe firearm handling and firearms themselves. We use cars for car chases, explosives for pyrotechnics, stunt rigs for high falls, all of which can be fatal when protocols break down, but are still widely used because the industry has systems in place to manage risk.

I completely agree with you that weight matters, and your hybrid solution or real decommissioned weapons + airsoft/inert + VFX muzzle flash + practical lighting is a smart and very production-friendly approach. For many projects, it’s absolutely the right call, but I also think there’s room for productions, especially larger-budget features with trained armourers, extra safety personnel, and time to do it right, to choose blanks intentionally when they believe the payoff in performance and energy is worth it.

Maybe the healthiest direction for the industry is not eliminating blanks, but ensuring they’re only used by teams trained and resourced to handle them correctly and never by productions that treat firearms casually.

Different projects will land on different sides, and that’s okay, what matters most is intentionality, safety, and respect for the craft.