Posted on 03/21/2019 3:22:23 PM PDT by robowombat
I’m clueless here.
Why did the gun even need blanks?
Couldn’t they just CG in the flash and noise?
And they never went over gun with blanks safety?
Where did you see that the gun was loaded with blanks, or did you only read the headline?
He was shot dead with a real gun. Did you read past the headline?
This has to stop. Its time to ban country singers.
Guns are always loaded. It is idiocy to point them at people without making D@mn certain that they are not fireable.
Playing Russian Roulette with a semi?
Ok... a prop would be a fake gun.
This on the other hand would be a gun that was being used to make a video not a gun that was being used as a prop.
I’ve been around enough Community Theater and pit crew stuff to know what they use in the theatrical productions.
Lee wasn’t shot with a blank exactly. The gun had previously supposed to have been loaded with dummy rounds which have bullets but no powder so they look real in a revolver. They didn’t have any on set so a prop guy removed the bullets and emptied the charge from real ones then replaced the bullets. When they replaced the rounds with blanks for the shooting scene one of the bullets dislodged in the cylinder and the blank round shot it out.
I took a class with a firearms expert back in the day and he told us there were three rules of gun safety.
#1, all guns are loaded even when they’re not.
#2, don’t point a gun at anything you’re not ready to destroy.
#3, always know what is behind your target.
And of course, if it’s a semi-automatic pistol, to unload it by dropping the magazine FIRST, then ejecting the live round that’s still remaining in the chamber. NOT the other way around.
I agree. A great deal more. He did not accidentally get killed by a prop. Note that the story said it occurred at his apartment.
Singer in the group Chicago suffered the blank fate.
What a freak accident — although why was the first failure, with the primer-driven bullet stuck in the barrel, not followed up on? Gun goes pop (not bang) and no bullet to be seen. It took two foul-ups to cause the shooting.
Horsing around with a gun that he expected to be used in a music video he was going to be in? But dumb as a stump, so didn’t confirm that the gun was in a harmless state.
Correct.
Yup, people realy underestimate things.
No, read the article which wasn't at all clear on what happened.
Just making the point that even props and things thought to be safe can kill.
My grandfather was a prop master on many movie and tv productions; a prop firearm is by definition unable to fire a cartridge. Most will only have an inch or so from the muzzle drilled out, and most often will be made out of cast rubber.
Real firearms are sometimes used, occasionally with an obstructed barrel. Typical introduction with real firearms will include the mellon shoot, showing exactly what a half charge blank will do at 15 feet from the muzzle. But at no point are they referred to by any professional as a prop; they are firearms to kept locked up at all times when not being used for a shooting scene under controlled direction.
(And the stories he used to tell about some of the stuff that never made it onto the screen were hilarious. I had tremendous respect for one actor who tried to have him blackballed after being unable to handle a single action firearm who, at my grandfather’s funeral, not only apologized for his uncalled for vendetta, but also paid for my grandmother’s living expenses for the rest of her life.
My grandmother, alas, was not one to forgive and forget, she lived VERY well on his guilt.)
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