Cracked: Prop Gun Laws

Oh this is goood.

See Cracked had a trend where they'd interview people who did "odd jobs".
That is  careers that were strange and give some insight.

They also have a habit of doing.... gun articles.  Which has become the main thing I blog about.

So them doing an article about a guy that provides prop guns for Movies is catnip.


Right off the bat they complain about guns converted to fire blanks.   Now it's true that these guns can be dangerous as the blanks do have a force at the end.  Which the article covers. (Including The Crow)

And sure the article frets about the scariness of the blanks firing guns (calling them Actual Firearms).  But it also mentions Cooper's Rule 2 (which shows the penetration of the safety rules).

But the amusing parts...

This occasionally causes issues, because certain very famous actors also happen to have very large rap sheets, and felons are legally barred from touching firearms in the U.S. Yes, you can take a moment to weep for them now. Mike and his colleagues have ways to deal with that: "That was something that was brought to the attention of armorers in the movie industry years ago, because we did have several actors ... who have felonies on their record, and we were told by ATF and the California Department of Justice that we could not hand them a functioning firearm. So generally ... we hand them something that is not a firearm, never has been a firearm. We specifically make up weapons that have never been firearms, so they've never been in that category."

Hah.

Since Mike works in California, he's got to deal with that state's notoriously strict gun laws. Even though his firearms have been converted to only fire blanks, he pays for a fistful of gun permits every year: "assault weapon permits, what they call Entertainment Firearms Permits ... they issue anyone these licenses, which they charge a lot of money for, which we have to pay for each year ... I carry ten different licenses, literally, to do what I do, most of which I have to renew every year."

It's kind of silly that a guy in Mike's position has to have the same permits as, say, a company that provides armed security guards. But there are bigger issues.

Why yes Cracked it is silly.  Maybe your writers should think more about how absurd gun control is when it actually gets put into action.

The other parts are more mundane-to-somewhat-amusing.  Basically being the standard complaints about movie makers wanting cool guns or doing dumb things with the prop guns.