I'm torn...
1) I think Alec Baldwin is a Class A scumbag of a human being...
2) I think anyone who points a real gun at someone they don't intend to kill, and pulls the trigger, is an idiot. The ONE specific exception would be someone doing so in a controlled environment for filming or stage acting - and doing this in full compliance with the safety protocols for that activity.
What I don't know / understand is what controls were in place on the set and whether he, or someone else, or both violated those controls. If I were an actor and we were using guns in our work - I'd sure as hell know how to check and clear the guns. There are a bunch of scenarios that I think are plausible as causes for this tragedy...
1) The weapons master was incompetent and violated protocol by intermingling live and loaded guns with prop guns. (it sounds like this was almost certainly true).
2) Baldwin or someone else violated protocol by getting a gun from some source other than the weapons master.
3) The protocols for handling / assigning prop guns on the set were inadequate.
Guessing it is some combination of these.
I can see scenarios where Baldwin is truly innocent under the protocols for the shoot (e.g. the protocol requires the weapons master to check the firearm, clear the firearm, hand the checked and cleared firearm to the actor before the take - and they just grabbed the gun and handed it to him). That said - if he was one of the folks who violated their protocols - or he set protocols that were insufficient (I believe that he was the primary producer) - then the charges make sense.
No matter how much I dislike the man - I'd like to think that if he were truly the innocent third party - just the actor using a prop that he was assured was safe / inert in the manner expected of him in his capacity as an actor - that he would not have been charged.
Accidents CAN happen - I remember reading up on the death of Brandon Lee - and thinking "wait - so a gun was loaded with blanks and they failed to check to see if there was a squib in the barrel before filming...how do you prevent THAT?!?" The answer is - you put a protocol in place that makes an individual personally responsible for checking the barrel, and for validating the blanks, and...