RE: The sad truth
Yes, normally this should not happen with a revolver, just as the video explains. On the other hand.... movie prop guns are usually rented from professional prop gun suppliers. And they have different categories of quality guns, going from proper fully functional guns, converted blank firing guns, to non funktional guns and even dummy guns made of plastic or wood. I watched a video about a Canadian company that does that. They have everything from a Derringer to a 40mm Bofors AA cannon, and from 17th century to the most modern stuff. And not only one each, they have thousands of guns.
But I digress... it could happen that some guns - that are not meant to be fired - have malfunctions. Like the hammer half notch safety not working or so.
However. Its not really important if Baldwin just played around with the hammer and it fired, as he claims, or if he did pull the trigger. The gun should not have fired in any case - since there was no live rounds meant to be in it. So the real culprid is the person who loaded the gun and gave it to Baldwin.
That career end thing was said by Baldwin himself. But sure, he may get away with it and come back once gras has grown over the case. If that doesn't take too long, since he is not a spring chicken anymore.
I have a couple of replicas myself--they can be amazingly realistic.
Yes I know, I also have a Colt Peacemaker replica. And for movies its not so critical anyway. Often its only for extras who march along or stand guard, who are never shown closely. For that they have those plastic or wood replicas. That way the extras also cannot steal real guns or break them, since they are really expensive. The plastic ones are fairly cheap, and they can always make some more if needed. This canadian firm has literally warehouses full of that stuff. All the different rifles from the old days like the independence war, civil war, WW1, WW2 and whatever, and from the relevant countries like Britain, France, American, German ect.
The real guns are only used if it actually is seen firing in the scene. That takes much more effort then. And it cost much more, too. Especially, if the customer wants a lot of unusual stuff, or even modifications. Do you know that a original working Thompson machine gun from WW2 in good condition can cost 40-50,000$ ? So if you break one in a film production you probably have to deal with some very unhappy people... :)
Also its quiete difficult to make automatic guns fire blanks. In a standard automatic or semi automatic gun it doesn't work at all. Well, it will fire one shot, but not cycle as its supposed to do. So to make that work they have developed certain tricks, like narrowing the barrel diameter, use lighter springs and other workarounds. Its a whole science by itself. But they do have tons of experience from many years. The guy was talking about the movies they fitted out with guns - just about every action blockbuster in the past 30 or so years.
Don't forget the rubber guns they sometimes produce so the actors don't get hurt! Every now and then you can see one bounce on screen.
Don't get me started on the Thompson machine guns--that's my favorite weapon, and I've always wanted one of my own. If it happens at all, I'll have to settle for a replica.
The Thompson is certainly a very iconic weapon. I`m not sure if I understood all the different gun laws in the US, but from what I heard, its very complicated - and in any case expensive - to buy a functioning machine gun. As a semi auto only version it may be easier. But a Thompson is always somewhat expensive, just because of the way its built. It was a expensive gun from day one, thats why they didn't sell very well for 20 years. The vast number of those guns was only then made for WW2, when they agreed to build them cheaper for "patriotic" reasons. And still it was soon replaced then by the "Grease Gun". That was much cheaper and faster to produce, which is really of importance for the military - not that it lasts forever.
And there are probably better sub-machine guns, objectively seen. Like the H&K MP5 for example. Which is also a iconic classic by now, and much cheaper to buy. Ok, its a 9mm, but thats no disadvantage, rather the opposite.
And some people would definatly be better off with a bounce rubber gun... :)
Ouch!
Yeah, grease guns were stamped metal, much less expensive. Here you have to get a federal permit to own an automatic weapon, but it is possible--it's a lot easier to get the same weapon modified so it can only fire semi-auto. I'd probably just put it in a display case, so there's no particular reason for mine to be operational. Although having said that, a burglar would probably think twice if he saw one trained on him!
Yes, during WW2 nearly all guns started to be made from stamped parts instead of milled. That happened especially in Germany first, because of a lack of rescources and the need to speed up production. Soon after also in Russia. But also the Brits went that way with some guns. Have you ever looked at a Sten gun? Its absolutly amazing how primitive that thing is built - and yet it works pretty well. Its made of 15 parts or so, and only the barrel and the bolt are not made of sheet metal.
About the conversion to semi auto: from what I understood, that is rather difficult to do. Because it is pretty simple to change the functionality of the trigger group to semi only - but then its just as easy to change it back again. And that they want to prevent. So they demand a solution that cannot be altered again, and thats not easy to do.
If you want the Thompson just as a display model, may be there are non functional replicas. Sure they will be more affordable, too.
For home defense its impractical anyway. You dont want to turn your house into a war zone, do you. For home defense you need something, that delivers the decisive blow with total reliability, and without the need to practice every week with it. Like a cut off double barrel shotgun or a good quality revolver, like a 4 inch S&W .357 or so with the right kind of ammo. All that is much more affordable than some fancy converted SMG or AR. You have those great gun shows in the US, don't you, where you can get 2nd hand stuff. Or from a pawn shop perhaps. And a old shotgun is not seen as such a dodgy weapon like a assault rifle, I assume. And yet it will stop everybody with one shot, no questions left. At a distance below 60 feet it never fails. Also not mechanically - stay away from pump actions. Nothing can jam with a double barrel, so you have always 2 safe shots at least.
A .38 revolver is what I have, although my wife has a semi-auto pistol. Honestly, I've been thinking about a shotgun for some time, but if we ever get burglarized I'll probably be too busy laughing at the crook as our dog tears him apart to take aim, anyway. Besides, my wife might want to have some fun with one of her swords--or that giant dagger that's on the wall by the Christmas tree.
Yeah, a .38 revolver is also good enough. The stopping power is more a matter of the bullet type anyway, it doesn't have to be super powerfull.
Automatic are also reliable, if its a decent brand... usually, mostly all the time. But you know how it is, Murphy's law and all... On a revolver there is basically nothing that can go wrong - unless you forget to load it.
Well, with knifes and such stuff its a gamble. I have plenty of them here, in all sizes. Even a ancient greek sword, like they have in the movie 300 - but that needs a new handle... one of the jobs I will do "one day". :)
But I am in Germany - in the US having a knife seems a little too optimistic. When just about everybody has a gun, its not such a good idea to have a knife. At least, not only a knife....