Actors who are legally prohibited, but touch guns in movies ...

milktree

milktree

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I have this idea (I don't remember where I got it) that there's a fair number of actors who touch/hold/use actual guns in movies and TV despite being federally prohibited persons.

Did I make this up? If not, is there a list somewhere?

I stared down this rathole because the ATF says having certain state licences exempts the dealer from doing a NICS check, one of the exceptions is for a California "Entertainment Firearms License"

Permanent Brady Permit Chart | Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Prepared by: ATF Office of Enforcement Programs and Services Last updated: August 10, 2023 Note: Notwithstanding the dates set forth below, permits qualify as alternatives to the background check requirements of the Brady law for no more than 5 years from the date of issuance. The permit must be...
www.atf.gov www.atf.gov

The mechanics of how this might work are confusing. Do the providers of the "props" do a 4473? Must the actor keep the gun under his/her direct control always? If more than one person touches the gun, do they have to do a 4473 for each scene?
 
I saw a vid on how the weapons master modified guns for John Wick. They put in light springs to cycle the action despite decreased power from blanks, then used custom barrels with a taper and corkscrew-looking rifling, so any authentic cartridge with a bullet (if somehow brought on set and loaded) would get caught before leaving the muzzle. They’re not firearms any longer in any legal or practical sense.

EDIT: I remembered wrong. See vid in my post below.
 
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I remember reading an article on this not long ago. The takeaway being that there are companies which specialize in providing props for exactly this purpose, which in their configuration aren’t actually firearms that could fire a round.
 
Movie guns are special. When you enter a room with a movie gun you have to point it at the ceiling while holding it near the side of your head with your finger on the trigger. Then when you whip around the corner and enter the room the gun makes a special clacking noise when you point it at something. And when you shoot the gun sparks will fly from whatever you hit.
If all that stuff happens you are exempt from normal gun laws.
 
Wickedcoolname said:
Movie guns are special. When you enter a room with a movie gun you have to point it at the ceiling while holding it near the side of your head with your finger on the trigger. Then when you whip around the corner and enter the room the gun makes a special clacking noise when you point it at something. And when you shoot the gun sparks will fly from whatever you hit.
If all that stuff happens you are exempt from normal gun laws.
Click to expand...
That’s nothing. Every knife I own is actually Bugs Bunny’s Singing Sword. Makes knifey noises when they move.
 
Brewer said:
I saw a vid on how the weapons master modified guns for John Wick. They put in light springs to cycle the action despite decreased power from blanks, then used custom barrels with a taper and corkscrew-looking rifling, so any authentic cartridge with a bullet (if somehow brought on set and loaded) would get caught before leaving the muzzle. They’re not firearms any longer in any legal or practical sense.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a recipe for a KB!
 
Camhabib said:
I remember reading an article on this not long ago. The takeaway being that there are companies which specialize in providing props for exactly this purpose, which in their configuration aren’t actually firearms that could fire a round.
Click to expand...
Tell that to Bruce Lee's brother!
 
new guy said:
I think they just use prop guns.
Click to expand...
They're real. Saw Mark Wahlberg with a Glock 19. Gen4 9x19 Austria on the slide. Loaded with blanks but very real. The gun that accidentally killed Brandon Lee on the set was a real .44 magnum. There is a company that provides these weapons, along with an armorer and weapons expert, to film producers under contract. Wahlberg went to Front Sight, a firearms training company in Nevada, for training on a real .300 WinMag sniper rifle prior to his role as a sniper in a film. If he is a prohibited person for whatever reason, and some people think he is, then he committed multiple federal and state "felon in possession of a firearm" offenses during the course of his career.
 
BOOTKNIFEFAN said:
They're real. Saw Mark Wahlberg with a Glock 19. Gen4 9x19 Austria on the slide. Loaded with blanks but very real. The gun that accidentally killed Brandon Lee on the set was a real .44 magnum. There is a company that provides these weapons, along with an armorer and weapons expert, to film producers under contract. Wahlberg went to Front Sight, a firearms training company in Nevada, for training on a real .300 WinMag sniper rifle prior to his role as a sniper in a film. If he is a prohibited person for whatever reason, and some people think he is, then he committed multiple federal and state "felon in possession of a firearm" offenses during the course of his career.
Click to expand...
He’s a real life scum bag. FCB8F7A4-1E06-400C-AF18-E9F9A54EC3BF.jpeg
 
BOOTKNIFEFAN said:
They're real. Saw Mark Wahlberg with a Glock 19. Gen4 9x19 Austria on the slide. Loaded with blanks but very real. The gun that accidentally killed Brandon Lee on the set was a real .44 magnum. There is a company that provides these weapons, along with an armorer and weapons expert, to film producers under contract. Wahlberg went to Front Sight, a firearms training company in Nevada, for training on a real .300 WinMag sniper rifle prior to his role as a sniper in a film. If he is a prohibited person for whatever reason, and some people think he is, then he committed multiple federal and state "felon in possession of a firearm" offenses during the course of his career.
Click to expand...
In 1988 he assaulted a Vietnamese shop keeper while hopped up on PCP. He was sentenced to 2 years.
 
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milktree said:
I have this idea (I don't remember where I got it) that there's a fair number of actors who touch/hold/use actual guns in movies and TV despite being federally prohibited persons.

Did I make this up? If not, is there a list somewhere?

I stared down this rathole because the ATF says having certain state licences exempts the dealer from doing a NICS check, one of the exceptions is for a California "Entertainment Firearms License"

Permanent Brady Permit Chart | Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Prepared by: ATF Office of Enforcement Programs and Services Last updated: August 10, 2023 Note: Notwithstanding the dates set forth below, permits qualify as alternatives to the background check requirements of the Brady law for no more than 5 years from the date of issuance. The permit must be...
www.atf.gov www.atf.gov

The mechanics of how this might work are confusing. Do the providers of the "props" do a 4473? Must the actor keep the gun under his/her direct control always? If more than one person touches the gun, do they have to do a 4473 for each scene?
Click to expand...
Based on this ATF list I',m exempt due to my holding a Utah concealed weapons permit. They don't specify resident or non-resident so I'm good to go, right?

Somehow I don't see my local FFL saying, "ya you got a Utah permit, you don't need to fill out that 4473, have a nice day"

Is there a lawyer out there willing to comment? A Utah permit is easy to get and imagine the fun of no one in MA having to do the NICS check.
 
42! said:
Based on this ATF list I',m exempt due to my holding a Utah concealed weapons permit. They don't specify resident or non-resident so I'm good to go, right?

Somehow I don't see my local FFL saying, "ya you got a Utah permit, you don't need to fill out that 4473, have a nice day"

Is there a lawyer out there willing to comment? A Utah permit is easy to get and imagine the fun of no one in MA having to do the NICS check.
Click to expand...
We'd have an easier go of convincing them to make the license term 5 years...
 
I watched a so called documentary about the firearm handler who was in charge of Clint Eastwood's S+W model 29 during the Dirty Harry movies and he said they used multiple models, some real and some fake models with welded barrels because the actors didn't like real guns being pointed at them.

They have one of them on display if you go on the Warner Bros. studio tour
 

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Lol nobody does a 4473 for a temp rental or loan deal. Ever. The reason it's not enforced is because the ATF just doesn't want to or doesn't care.....
 
Brewer said:
I saw a vid on how the weapons master modified guns for John Wick. They put in light springs to cycle the action despite decreased power from blanks, then used custom barrels with a taper and corkscrew-looking rifling, so any authentic cartridge with a bullet (if somehow brought on set and loaded) would get caught before leaving the muzzle. They’re not firearms any longer in any legal or practical sense.
Click to expand...
Lol everyone says this but i bet strictly speaking under title 1 or 2 most are still federally considered firearms. Let's put it this way if a guy built a bunch of P80 handguns, put in blank firing barrels, and sold them to anyone... how long do you think it would take before they ended up arrested by the ATF?
 
madmas1208 said:
I watched a so called documentary about the firearm handler who was in charge of Clint Eastwood's S+W model 29 during the Dirty Harry movies and he said they used multiple models, some real and some fake models with welded barrels because the actors didn't like real guns being pointed at them.

They have one of them on display if you go on the Warner Bros. studio tour
Click to expand...

madmas1208 said:
I watched a so called documentary about the firearm handler who was in charge of Clint Eastwood's S+W model 29 during the Dirty Harry movies and he said they used multiple models, some real and some fake models with welded barrels because the actors didn't like real guns being pointed at them.

They have one of them on display if you go on the Warner Bros. studio tour
Click to expand...
In an interview many years ago, Farrah Fawcett remembered the gun she carried in her role as private investigator Jill Munroe as a real S&W Model 36. She never fired it on the set (with blanks) but Kate Jackson's character, Sabrina Duncan, did on a few occasions during the original series in the mid to late 1970s.
 

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