Doesn't the Prop Store bug you?
 

All those Hero guns that are filmed overseas (and sometimes here and sold over there) that are pretty much deactivated with welded rods and rendered inoperable so that they can be sold privately to those poor wretches who can't own live firearms. Whenever I see a gun pic on IMFDB with the PropStore of London watermark, I inherently know that many of the metal guns were once live firearms that were deactivated by the pinheads in the UK (the govt, not the people). I actually cringe when I see those pics....:(

But doesn't converting a gun to blank fire also pretty much destroy it? Sometimes Prop Store sells the ones that were converted to blank fire for American customers, still in firing state (like Denzel's Browning HP from "American Gangster"), and they always mention that the weapon is incapable of functioning with live ammo due to the conversion - although it still has to go through an FFL.

Don't you cringe whenever you see rare firearms get converted to blank fire?

It depends on what you call rare? It happens when a show calls out for that weapon. I had an assistant in Ellis who loved Glock's. Then we had a show that needed all the officers armed with Glock's and he turned white when I converted them to blanks. To me it comes with the job and you just have to let go.

Well, let's say a Sturmgewehr (any variant), for instance?

Glocks, I guess I wouldn't get so worked up about, just because those can be had anywhere, for close to pocket change.

Hopefully they'd convert a current reproduction replica and not a vintage WWII example. Then again, some of MPM's pics say they are old guns (like the vintage WWI Lugers), so do armorers convert real mint weaponry sometimes?

Didn't the HP Denzel use have a plugged barrel so he could shoot that guy in the head point blank? So technically it was plugged, but is still capable of firing low powered blanks (you can see the muzzle flash was added in in the film).

Let's I have converted a Stg44, MP40, MP38, 1895 Maxim only 10 in the US and I converted 2 or them, Colt 1921 Thompsons, 1918 Browning Automatic Rifles on WWII variations, and a number of other NFA weapons that are expensive and rare. I know that it just makes collector cringe see what is put on film.

Speaking of the Sturmgewehr, I've never seen any American movies with those at all. US armorers just can't get those? There were a lot of them in Downfall, but that was a German movie.

I have worked on four of them in one armory in CA. I know of one that I have used at another armory that's out of business on a history channel show also for EA's Metal of Honor series and two that were converted to 7.62 x 39 blank. That's seven Stg44 or MP44 in CA film industry now FG42 don't exsist in the film industry in CA at this time.

What, didn't you see the picture of the one that MoviePropMaster photographed for us, that now serves as our standard Stg image? ;)

Yeah, I remember MPM saying he's been looking for one for a while.

I didn't say if there were any in the US, I'm sure there has to be a few, but I'm just saying why no American made WWII films have the Stg44s or any other ones besides Downfall.

As far as that FG42 goes a Friend of mine once saw one back east. According to him theres only about half a dozen here in the US.

Not every gun I photograph is blank adapted. Some of them I photographed just because they were available. the StG-44 and the FG-42 are NOT blank adapted. Nor would I unless I was compelled to do so for a very good life or death reason ;)

Also, I am differentiating between blank fire and completely inactive. Those Berettas used in Underworld now have IRON pins welded in THREE PLACES on the frame itself. Movie blank adapted pistols don't do that. In fact give us a new barrel and slide and we're back in business. I also don't consider a blank adapted live gun 'destroyed' since it can be used for movie use some other day. But many of these guns are rendered inoperable completely. The FRAME isn't destroyed in the U.S., but quite a few of the Hero guns over there in England ARE destroyed. Hopefully folks understand what I'm talking about :)

There are a lot more than a half a dozen FG42's in the US. Kent LaMont has had a lot of them through his dealership over the years. A real rare weapon is a Vickers GO only about 5 in the US. It's above the FG42 and Villar-Perosa on it's rarity.

The Vickers Gas Operated guns are cool. I wonder if the UK Armorers have any. I sure hope they don't weld those shut someday, but we're talking about the UK here. :(

I read somewhere that they might have to turn in their deactivated guns also. I will have to check my Military Vehicle magazine to verify.

Ah, gotcha.

Yeah, understandable. Though certainly, destroying the frame and slide is pretty expensive. I would shudder to do it on something for which no replacement parts are easily available.

I think you mean ''Barrel'' and slide. We don't destroy our frames in the movie business here in the states, unless we are specifically creating a non-functional dummy gun from a real one.

I've welded up some damaged live guns before, some of them were (slightly) crushed either by a vehicle or a falling tree in their past lives and were not safe to fire live rounds out of ever again. I had an M1911A1 that was run over by a armored vehicle on a dirt road in years ago, and the frame had mini cracks and was slightly crushed so that it would not take milspec replacement parts any more. It was not safe to fire either live or blank rounds (actually it wouldn't function period), so I welded the crap out of it and made a dummy gun. Of course that was back in the 1980s when ATF wasn't changing the 'definition' of De-wat every six months either.

But would I destroy the frame of an operable weapon? Uh, hell no. But apparently the poor bastards in the Politically Correct UK don't even have de-wats or replicas to play with any more.... :(

When you buy guns, the FRAME is what counts. When you buy a frame, you have to register it as a firearm. If cops found a barrel or slide in your pocket, they'd be suspicious or just let you go. If you have a frame, you need some papers. This cop I knew in NYC (he's a dickhead BTW) caught a guy with a Beretta frame and he was arrested. Sent me some photos. I'll try to find them.

Anyway, I'm assuming these laws also factor in you changing the slide or no?

Heh? What do you mean? The blank adapted guns are live real guns in the eyes of the law, so there is no law to us swapping out an un blank adapted barrel and slide out and putting a factory barrel and slide back in and selling it just like any other firearm. ATF considers EVERYTHING a live firearm except (specifically de-watted firearms or those blocked barrel "Blank Only" theatrical guns sold through mail order catalogs or the Internet). So I'm not sure what you are referring to :)

Also NYC is another planet when it comes to idiotic gun control laws. NYC almost makes California look like TEXAS when it comes to draconian gun laws .....

I wasn't sure about the rules with blank converted guns but what I was saying is that if you buy a pistol frame, it has to be registered or it is illegal to own, yet owning a barrel or slide doesn't require registration. If this is wrong, blame the guy who told me this.

No you're right, the only part of a gun that qualifies as a gun is the frame or reciever piece, probably whatever houses the trigger and magazine. I found this out back when I was shopping for 1911s, I looked at the parts list on Kahr Arms/Auto Ordnance and found a disclaimer on the frames for sale that said you needed an FFL cause it qualified as a firearm itself. Other parts are just hunks of metal. I bought a hammer strut, the pin, magazines and grips at a gun show no problems and I'm 17.

That's true. Only the frame is the 'firearm'. But all our blank firing pistols have the frame, so they're firearms. We can swap out barrels and slides (which are unregulated .... SO FAR...) all day long. I'm not sure if there is any sort of remaining controversy on this thread ;) So I will amble along......

I saw an FG42 in the background in the movie The Eagle Has Landed, duribng the trainyard standoff. However, it might have been a rubber prop or something, it isn't seen for long. Also, I saw 2 StG44s for sale at a gun show recently.