Does anyone know if its legal to have replica blank guns in NY?

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Deergab

New member
They are supposed to be use for TV-show/Movie purposes where only blank cartridge are to be only used for these types of guns. Just curious if New York state have laws regarding having blank firing guns?

I found a sites that sell these type of blank guns:
http://www.airgundepot.com/blank-firing-replica-guns-beretta-92f-blank-gun.html
http://www.knivesdeal.com/Blank-Firing-Replica-Guns_c237.htm
http://www.replicaairguns.com/

For me directing actors how a gun should react when fired to the body and adding muzzle flares is tough especially if there's more than one in a scene or clips. I'm sick of tired using AAE adding special effects to something that you can have it done not just add it afterwards on AAE. (AAE = Adobe After Effects) Note: I don't know if this is the right section for this post I'm been looking for a thread to ask this question.
 
Well, first off, unless you are planning on shelling out some big bucks, the blank guns that are available cheaply are not ported out the front. They are ported out the top, so you still will not get the muzzle flash. Every example you have given, if it is a blank gun, is a blocked barrel gun. If you want that muzzle flash, you will need to find a restricted fire or Plug Fire Cartridge (PFC) gun. But those are very pricey and very hard to maintain.

Also, at least in CA, once you go into the realm of blanks, you have entered into pyro-land. Meaning you need a pyrotechnician on set.

As to the legality...... all I can say is CA has some hard gun laws, NY is second to us. I know several blank gun manufacturers that will not ship to NY, if that helps you.

PS: requested the move to the right section for you. (SFX/Stunts)
 
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Yes you can have replica blank guns but they are treated as real guns and other replicas, meaning that they are not meant to be carried around and just having one in your car can be interpreted as carrying a concelled weapon. Even if it is non fireing you can still be arrested. However for the purposes of being on set you can show up with one and provide it to the officers there for inspection (MUST HAVE POLICE ON SET WHEN DOING SCENES INVOLVING GUNS AND IT MUST BE IN THE SCHEDULE A). Also there are the challenges you will have:

What do you need the gun to do in the scene.

For one scene where we needed to blow up a potato silencer. A regular blank gun wouldn't work so we had to rent one any way and one with a blowback to blow up the end of the potato was expensive as hell. The rental costs were $1150 for the revolver and $1 per blank.

Secondly, not all shots give you muzzle flash. For another scene, even though we used blank firing guns, I still had to send the footage to an AE guy because in each take we fired 4 times and only 2 flashes went off. Costs for the guns were $1,500, plus $1 per blank.

Lastly, please make sure you have police presence on set. Let me state this again. YOU NEED POLICE PRESENCE ON SET. For the potato silencer it was shot indoors and eventhough we informed the neighbors of what we were doing, someone still called police to report shots fired. He had 2 squard cars turn up on set. Luckily we had officers stationed right in front of the house but you don't want the headaches.

I will leave you with this: Quit frankly the best scene we did gun fire/muzzle flash related was shot with a non-blowback bb-gun and effects added with AE.
 
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There are places in NY that will rent you a blank-firing gun for photographic purposes and they have all the proper paperwork and information for dealing with the legality.

Most important -- even a prop gun can be dangerous or even lethal. Look up John-Eric Hexum or the unfortunate accident on the set of The Crow.
 
Also please be aware that laws within New York City are different from those for New York State.

In New York City it is illegal to own realistic/semi-realistic firearm replicas, even if it is completely non-functioning (no blanks or moving parts), unless it is owned by a registered prop house and supervised by one of their employees.
 
roguebot said:
Also please be aware that laws within New York City are different from those for New York State.

In New York City it is illegal to own realistic/semi-realistic firearm replicas, even if it is completely non-functioning (no blanks or moving parts), unless it is owned by a registered prop house and supervised by one of their employees.
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Are you sure about the second part of your statement? I believe it might be incorrect. Last summer when I was giving full disclosure in the mayor's office they made no mention about it being illegal to own replicas. All they did was ask that when I traveled with the prop weapons they were properly stored in the trunk of any vehicle and that they were listed on the schedule A on the dates we were traveling with them.
 
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