The 12 Greatest Myths about Firearms on Film Sets: What every filmmaker needs to know

The 12 Greatest Myths about Firearms on Film Sets: What every filmmaker needs to know
By Dave Brown
Blanks
Myth #1: "Blanks are not dangerous."
Reality: At close distances, blanks can be extremely dangerous. This is why firearms on film sets must always be handled by experts, and not just someone who happens to own a gun; it takes a lot of knowledge and experience to know exactly how dangerous a blank can be and how to coordinate scenes so everyone stays safe. Like many other action scenes we do in film, what you see on the screen does not reflect the work that goes into carefully choreographing movements, actions, angles and distances.
Myth #2: "Okay, then ... blanks are too dangerous."
Reality: When properly handled and supervised, firearms are no more dangerous than any other prop on the film set. Just remember that - loaded or not - firearms require the UNDIVIDED attention of a licensed expert. No matter the size of your budget, your cast and crew deserve to know their safety is being handled by an expert when there are firearms on set.
Myth #3: "But my brother-in-law/dad/buddy is a cop/hunter/target shooter. They can handle them for me."
Reality: Movie firearms require some very specialized knowledge and a good understanding of safety procedures and the unique nature of the firearms we use in film. Plus, there may be legal restrictions on the possession and supervision of firearms, and they apply to everyone. It’s not just knowing guns; it’s knowing the unique hazards of firearms in film that is important. Weapons handlers must have the type of personality that makes people feel safe and confident, not unduly worried about what can go wrong, but they must also be prepared to draw a firm line when safety is at stake.
Myth #4: "But all we need to do is keep people a safe distance away when firing blanks."
Reality: I am often asked what the safe distance is for a particular blank. The fact is that there is NO SAFE DISTANCE in front of a blank. There are only SAFER distances. Well, okay, a mile is safe. A foot is not safe. Any distance in between depends on the power of the blank, the nature of the firearm and the angle that it is fired. Blanks expel large volumes of burning gases plus flakes of burnt and unburnt gunpowder with explosive force. Every firearm has a different dangerous range and this is why firearms safety specialists spend a great deal of their time learning about the individual characteristics of every firearm before it is used on set. Even when a blank is far enough away to be relatively harmless to exposed skin, high-speed particles can cause eye injuries.
Myth#5: "So it is always safer to use the lowest power possible."
Reality: Not always. Blanks can usually be supplied in Ľ, ˝ or full power loads. In some cases, however, it is more dangerous to use low power loads than full power. Semi-automatic and automatic firearms must be specially modified to fire blanks, and the action will only cycle properly with loads designed for them. If lower power loads are used, the firearms can jam. This can be dangerous because a jammed firearm is still loaded and can potentially become unjammed during the scene.
Myth #6: "So Ľ loads and ˝ loads are less power than full loads."?
Reality: Not always. The terms "Ľ," "˝," and "full” load are essentially meaningless unless you are using them to compare the same manufacturer’s loads in the same firearm. The power of a blank depends directly on how much gunpowder is in it and inversely on the square of the distance away from the muzzle. Also, all firearms have differing characteristics. Some have an open barrel, some use a restrictor plate and some have baffled barrels. There is no way to predict the hazard simply by the designation on the box. A ˝ .45 calibre blank can be more powerful than a full power 9mm blank. A Ľ load shotgun blank is greater than a full power handgun blank, and rifle blanks can be 10 times more hazardous than a handgun blank.
Myth #7: "Then it is always safer to be farther away."?
Reality: Distance is your friend. It is better to increase the distance between a firearm and an actor than to decrease the power. In rare cases, however, it can be safer to be REALLY close. It is all about control. If actors are six feet apart, it is difficult to control and there is no way to rely on the actor always hitting their mark perfectly in order to keep people safe. This is why blanks are almost never fired toward another person. Even at farther distances, debris can hit someone in the eye. (Eye protection is one of our biggest concerns.) But if the firearm were to be six inches away, the actor’s head is not in frame and they could wear face and body protection. But with proper editing, there really is no need to ever have an actor in front of a gun when it fires.
Myth #8: "I have heard of ‘non-guns’ that fire a muzzle flash electronically. They must be safer to use because they can be fired directly at actors."
Reality: They are rarely used because they are expensive, they sometimes don’t look real and they still have safety concerns because they use a tiny explosive charge up the barrel to simulate the muzzle flash. You still need safety protection at very close ranges in case something goes wrong, plus it can be very intimidating to be staring down the muzzle of what looks like a firearm, knowing that your safety is now solely dependant on the manufacturer making sure nothing is going to come apart or fall off. As an expert firearms handler, I avoid non-guns because they don’t give me the triple redundancy in safety that I require in all my firearms scenes.
Firearms
Myth #9: "We don't need a firearms specialist if we are not using real firearms."?
Reality: In some countries, replica firearms are prohibited weapons and their use is almost as regulated as the real firearms they simulate. In places like Canada, people cannot make or acquire replica firearms unless they are film professionals. Plus, there ARE safety issues, even if a production is just using toys painted to look real. Anything that looks like a firearm still needs to be carefully supervised, actors need to be briefed to not point them at anyone unless required for the scene and they must never be allowed to leave the vicinity of the set. Actors have experienced dangerous situations where they have been mistaken for armed assailants and almost been shot by the real police. Firearms, real or fake, must ALWAYS be treated with respect.
Myth #10: "All this expertise costs a lot of money and I don't have the budget for that. I can save money by cutting a few corners and not telling anyone."?
Reality: Lack of money is no excuse for getting people hurt. EVERY FILMMAKER has a legal and moral obligation to protect the safety of their cast, their crew –whether paid or unpaid - and any bystanders and citizens in the area.
Accidents
Myth #11: "Brandon Lee died because:
a) a real cartridge was accidentally loaded into a firearm, or?
b) he was hit by a wad from the blank, or?
c) the Lee family is ‘cursed.’"?
Reality: Brandon Lee died because of a series of contributing factors that started when a production company tried to save money by sending the weapons specialist home early and turning over firearms supervision to a props assistant.
Two weeks before the night of the fatal accident on the North Carolina set of “The Crow,” a prop handgun was to be loaded with dummy cartridges for a close-up scene of cartridges being loaded into the chambers of a revolver. The actor doing the insert shot was warned not to pull the trigger of the prop handgun but was not being supervised properly and some witnesses stated during the investigation that they saw him pulling the trigger. Unknown to anyone at the time, this would have caused one of the primers to silently detonate and push the bullet slightly up the barrel where it would have gotten stuck. That night, no one thought to check the barrel for obstructions before putting it away, nor did anyone check the barrel for obstructions two weeks later when the same handgun was loaded with blanks and pointed at Brandon Lee during the scene.
Blanks have more gunpowder than the actual cartridges they are designed to simulate, and this series of missteps, forgotten safety procedures and ill-advised cost-cutting now culminated in a projectile being expelled out the barrel with the same fatal force as a real bullet.
Brandon Lee's mother sued the production for negligence and ultimately received a major settlement, but all the money in the world will still not bring back a promising young actor who died because of easily preventable mistakes. Sadly, while this one incident served to raise everyone’s awareness about firearms safety in the film industry, his was not the first fatal accident on a film set, nor will it be the last. His death taught the whole industry that only proper procedures, expert supervision and careful setup of firearms scenes is acceptable, and any filmmaker who chooses anything less is legally and morally negligent.
Myth #12: "Okay, you've convinced me that having qualified experts on the set is important. But actors don't need to know anything about safety; the experts take care of that." ?
Reality: On the contrary, actors SHOULD know something about firearms safety because they are the likeliest to be the first ones hurt if something goes wrong. Knowledge is power and knowledgeable actors are in a better position to judge for themselves if their safety is being handled properly. Cast and crew need to work in an atmosphere where questions are not only welcomed but are encouraged. After all, if they actor does something wrong, they get another take. If the weapons handler does something wrong, you will read about it in a thousand newspapers in the morning.

Dave Brown is a professional firearms instructor and safety specialist. He teaches advanced combat handgun and shotgun skills to police, military and government agencies and helps advise the government on training and safety issues. When not on the shooting range, he can be found on film sets across the country showing movie actors how to look like they know what they are doing with a gun in their hand. He has worked with hundreds of very talented cast and crew members and has coordinated the safety of firearms scenes for dozens of feature films.
Dave is often asked to teach workshops on what he does and how to stay safe for filmmakers and actors, and has written over 60 full-length magazine articles on firearms training and safety issues.