I was explaining to someone why sometimes the guns CHANGES to another gun and then changes back. Usually bad editing, BUT the editor can only work with what they have. Here are some examples of why continuity breaks happen (and other dumb stuff that happens) that I have run into in the past.
a) The director swapping guns between actors like an maniac:
I've been on films where the director changed out the guns without consulting the armorer or at the time we didn't know what the shot list was. In fact, very rarely does the armorer even know the script or shot list, except in larger films where a big gun battle or action sequence is taking place. If the filming is going at a breakneck pace, then we have to run onto set and hand an actor a gun quickly without knowing what shot the director has in mind. I've been on sets where the director makes the actor use a different gun. At the time I just figured it would be explained later, but alas, rarely it does.
b) The production not telling us what guns to bring on what day
I was on a television show where they wanted a shotgun but the woman in charge of the props department requested an AK47. Who uses an AK to breach the hinges on a heavy door?!?!?!?! The production had to make do, but these guys expected me to show up with a semi truck trailer filled with hundreds of guns (like the props trailer on a set), but armorers don't work like that. We don't bring hundreds of guns to a set with the hopes that the movie will use ONE GUN out of all of that. Also this scene broke continuity with a sequence filmed earlier where the actor DID have a shotgun. Again, not our fault.
(c) Only major motion pictures do tons of pre-production with guns.
Most lower budget movies, indies, and many foreign films give us NO TIME to barely train the actors. We don't have the luxury of spending weeks training the actors with gun handling and tactics. Only the BIG BUDGET films do that. When that happens it's a DREAM. On indie shoots, It's a bit of a hair raising experience on some sets to maintain firearms security AND firearms safety. But we have never wavered. I (and other armorers) have stopped a particular shot because it was unsafe. You have better be quick on your feet to see if some productions are a bunch of impulsive monkeys or not (I've discovered that some foreign film crews work on a completely different set of rules than American ones do .... mostly to do with safety and common sense ...
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(d) Most directors don't know sh*t about guns or tactics
Sure there are some COOL directors who have great gun battles in their films, but 99% of the other directors don't know a damned thing. You wondered why someone shot with a .44 magnum goes flying backwards twenty feet, doing a triple aerial sommersault at the same time? It's because the stunt coordinator thought it up and the director loved it, even though the gun wrangler/armorer thinks it's completely retarded. We don't argue with the director. It's not our place.
(e) Some actors don't listen
I can't count how many times I've yelled at actors or extras for dry firing guns or doing stupid things like spinning a cylinder and slamming it shut on a revolver, etc. etc. And seeing them 'ad lib' and drop the gun when we have rubber guns for that kind of thing?!?!?! It's enough to give you a stroke! Also the bad gun stance, the bad room clearing technique, the bad pistol or rifle or shotgun handling. We work with what we are given. Some actors or actresses just can't do it right, no matter how many times we try to train them. So we have to make do with the least offensive techniques. We have a filming schedule to keep after all.
(f) Some editors just don't catch the problems
Again, editors work with what they have. If you see a gun, and the ultra closeup of the trigger being pulled is from a completely different weapon, then the editor didn't have footage to pull from to do that sequence. It happens. Sometimes Directors of Photography (DP) or the director themselves don't get the coverage needed to do a cool and fast paced sequence, so the editor has to make do. A gun savvy editor would be horrified and do something else. Most editors don't know anything about guns. To them, a gun is a gun is a gun.
I guess I'm a bit of a hot head. A lot of the other armorers really know how to bite their lips on a set.
Makes you wonder why someone would post only with an online screen name .... oh wait a minute ... that's why