I posted this elsewhere but I really want you newbies to be safe and be aware of this stuff.

I did a student film and this guy playing the undercover cop shows up with his own weapon and AMMO. The director would not deal with it, even after I politely alerted him to it and said I was really uncomfortable. The scene required I have a gun to my head and we did have prop guns. The gun owner was just thinking it would be more realistic, I believe and seemed very responsible and let me check the gun was empty etc but he still was just a stranger off the street to me and the others. Noone seemed to understand and finally the director had us swap guns so I held the real one to chill me out but it was terribly handled and after the shoot the director got a HUGE earful off of me, let me tell you! He did not want to tell the guy to put it away as he thought that would be too "forward", can you believe it! This gutless unprofessional ruined the shoot. The solution was simple. "No firearms on the set." Take control of the project but he was too wimpy to do it....PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read the post I placed under the same name in the "Everything Acting Podcast" forum and see what everyone had to say. IMPORTANT and your life may depend on it!!!!

Wow, I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I just shot two shorts and wanted to use prop guns - not even real guns outdoors. To legally do that for just a prop gun, you have to hire an off-duty police officer and have a $1 million dollar insurance policy. I know of several people who've been arrested and fined huge for using prop guns without permits on an outdoor set. Of course, indoors on private property you can do whatever you want. Nonetheless, using a real gun is just dangerous business and I agree with you very unprofessional.