Media reports: Alec Baldwin, principal actor and co-producer of “Rust,” pointed a gun at the cinematographer and pulled the trigger, killing her and injuring the director standing behind her. Even worse, the crew previously complained that a stunt double accidentally fired two blank rounds. Worse still: The Union crew was fired, forcibly removed from the set, and replaced by non-Union workers.

Was the qualified armorer among those replaced? This seems likely, since a loaded gun was handed to Baldwin not by the armorer but by the assistant director, whose training in gun safety is unclear. If the producers, including Baldwin, fired the qualified armorer, then put the less qualified assistant director in charge of guns, and then Baldwin pointed gun at people and pulled trigger, what is the result?

Then we leave the realm of civil liability, with its enormous lawsuits that insurance may not cover because of negligence (assuming there was insurance). We enter the realm of criminal liability: manslaughter or even murder. In many states, killing someone by doing something grossly dangerous may escalate to second-degree murder. But in New Mexico, if more than one person is endangered, it may constitute first-degree murder:

Pointing a gun at two people and pulling the trigger would qualify, would it not? The moral of the story: Don’t point guns at people you don’t intend to kill, and don’t fire qualified people and replace them with less-qualified people where human life is at risk.

But before we self-righteously condemn what happened on the movie set of “Rust,” let us reflect that we are doing something regrettably similar. Major Democrat-run cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are threatening to fire police officers, firefighters, EMTs, nurses, medical techs, and physicians who refuse vaccination, even if they had Covid and are already immune. The fired personnel will either not be replaced at all, or be replaced by less qualified persons, some from overseas.

Is is hypocritical to condemn what happened on the movie set, and then do something even worse. Firing qualified personnel and careless actions killed one and injured one on the movie set. Firing key public-safety personnel in large cities will undoubtedly kill and injure many more. In law, this is called a depraved mind (or heart) indifferent to human life. In religion, it is called a terrible sin. In politics, it is called progressive.