That’s the reason why, you know what is at risk. While Reeves may have gone to a few sessions of ISPSA/IPSC/IDPA etc to gain perspective, not one of the “stages” in the movie were done with even blanks, all done with props, effects edited in afterwards. Even a shot with a blank would mess up the off hand/body part if covered at arm’s distance or less when fired.
Anyways, many folks have no idea how easy it would be to shoot oneself....
Recently, I was at a cigar store enjoying a nice smoke and began talking to a nice older gentleman sitting next to me...I noticed that he was missing his index finger....
Sensing an interesting story, I asked him how it happened....
He told me that a couple of years earlier he was handling his pistol while cleaning and shot his finger off....after several painful surgeries and an attempted re-attachment, he finally gave up and had the doctors permanently remove it.....