And it's absolutely not true🤷🏽
Maybe it was for that set because Baldwin was also a producer.
But every set I've been in that head a prop gun, there's a safety meeting every single day where they say the same thing.
"There's a prop gun on set today. It's always going to be empty except for ___ scene at 2pm. I'm going to walk around everyone and show you the chamber is empty"
Then they literally walk around and show you and if you have questions about anything they explain it in full detail.
You want to know why you still can't point a blank at someone? Sure. At the lunch break let's go to the firing area and I'll shoot a paper plate with a blank and you'll see stuff still gets shot out at speed.
They handle it with the actors. Show them it's empty. Or tell them this is what you've got in here. This is how you hold it. Never find in the trigger until you're shooting this is there release button this does that. They go through everything. And I'm between takes the armorer takes it back until they're ready for another take.