Thread: Fire arms (prop)

Being an ex competition shooter, I was up to date on on the old fire arms act and such. But now I am no longer a hit man for hire I'm not too sure on some aspects of it. I know that the Airsoft crowd have to have non gun coloured weapons and orange tips, but if I wanted to use a prop weapon on stage does anyone know if it can have a realistic finish?

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I think your main problem may be getting hold of one rather than the legalities of using one. The Violent Crime Reduction Act (2006) put massive restrictions on replica firearms:

Violent Crime Reduction Bill

though it appears you can still hire them from prop supply companies so it looks like using a realistic prop in an act is sort of legal

I bought air pistols that look like proper revolvers for my movie, altho we had a professional armourer on set for a couple of days when we had "proper" guns and a shotgun.

I would be careful you don't end up like Agent Lynch who was arrested abroad for her fake gun prop !

Maybe ask Equity about using guns onstage.

Im trying to figure out how to take 2 foam baseball bats on the plane to Cannes next week !!

You can still get replica and deactivated weapons, plenty of reenactors fairs and arms fairs around the country.

My experience of weapons, is that if you have proof that they're for theatrical use, and that of course they are just props and can't be modified into working weapons, then you should be ok.

Cheers guys, I'll have a couple of my Shotguns deactivated.

Right then the brief reply is as follows, replica guns of a period prior to (I think 1860) are fine, essentially this means replica guns that did not use cartridges, anyone can still get hold of those, later period weapons are also available however you must have a good reason, a theatrical act is deamed good reason but you may need a letter from an agent or similar as proof (it seems to depend on who you ask as to what is required) likewise reenactors and airsoft users get similar get outs, essentially if you can show that you have a legitimate use you will be able to get more or less what you want

From what I recall from going over seas with the SA80s deactivated or otherwise, you need special certificates from the police to have them. Also keep them in a gun safe. When in transit you need to carry certificates with you at all times just in case some copper has a nosey and gets excited by it.