After ‘Rust’ shooting, industry veterans say ‘buck stops’ with armorers on movie sets
Mike Tristano, the veteran armorer known for his work on horror flicks, said that on most sets, an assistant director — or anybody else, for that matter — would almost never pass a weapon to an actor.
“No one touches the guns except the armorer, and then of course the actors and actresses. The gun is only handed to them by the armorer,” Tristano said. “I've never allowed an assistant director to hand a gun to an actor in more than 30 years in this business."



Mike Tristano
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When it comes to guns and ammunition on sets, Tristano said, “the buck always stops” with the armorer, the licensed professional — sometimes credited as a “weapons master” — tasked with making sure movie firearms are safe and secure on set.
That’s why Tristano was baffled when he learned that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 24, the armorer on the
ill-fated Alec Baldwin project “Rust,” said she had
“no idea” how live ammo got on set, according to her lawyers.
“I think it’s a ridiculous statement,” Tristano said on Friday. “How could you not know what’s on your set in terms of anything that’s related to the weapons you’re supposed to be handling?”
“That’s like a chef doing the catering and being like: I don’t know where this food came from.”
“The armorer is responsible for all firearms and blank ammunition on set, and weapons should always be under the tight chain-of-custody of that person,” said Larry Zanoff, an armorer who worked on Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” and several Marvel movies.
“If there is an actual armorer on set … they are responsible for all aspects,” Zanoff added. “They are the crew member that’s ultimately responsible.”