A clearly petrified Alec Baldwin takes a desperate step…

There is no doubt that Alec Baldwin is scared. The reality and gravity of his situation is probably sinking in This guy is facing about 7 years in prison – that should be a helluva lot more if you ask me. And given Alec’s bloated, poor-looking health, he probably won’t make it out alive. So, he and the legal team are coming up with every trick in the book to try to get him out of this. At this point, they are trying to argue that charging Alec with this crime was actually “unconstitutional” and a “legal error.”

They are grasping at straws at this point. I think for the first time, Alec realizes karma may have caught up with him, and finally kicks his ass.

God, let’s hope so.

The Hollywood Reporter reported that after the fatal shooting, New Mexico lawmakers lowered the standard for additional sentencing and increased potential prison time from three to five years. Baldwin’s lawyers say the inclusion of the firearms enhancement is “unconstitutional and a fundamental legal error.”

Alec Baldwin is arguing that New Mexico prosecutors are unconstitutionally charging him with violating a law that did not exist at the time of the Rusty shooting.

The low-budget western actor and producer faces up to six-and-a-half years in prison under the recently-amended Firearms Enhancement Act. But that extension was enacted seven months after the fatal shooting. The amendment lowered the standard for additional sentencing and increased the potential prison term from three to five years.

In a motion to dismiss the charges filed Friday, Baldwin’s lawyers said the prosecution made a “primary legal error.”

“Application of the current version of the statute would be unconstitutionally retroactive, and there is no valid basis to charge Mr. Baldwin under the version of the statute existing at the time of the accident,” wrote Luke Nikas, who represents Baldwin.

Mary Carmack-Altwijs, the district attorney who serves in Santa Fe County, in January charged Baldwin and Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reid with two counts of involuntary manslaughter each in the death of cinematographer Halina Hutchins. Although the charge carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison, prosecutors included a firearms enhancement charge that carries an additional five years.

At the time of the shooting, the statute in question only applies if it is found that a firearm was “brandished,” meaning that the defendant used the weapon “with intent to frighten or injure a person.” It was amended in May after the incident, to replace the brandishing requirement with a lower standard that a gun was simply discharged.

And he must have “brandished” a weapon, right?

Ironically, it’s the firearms charge that has Alec in the most trouble right now, not that he shot and killed a wife and mother.