jkh@jade.BERKELEY.EDU (Jordan K. Hubbard) (10/10/86)
Article: 10:24
Thought the firearms groups might find this article amusing:
>From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Monday, Oct 6., 1986:
NEW GUN LAW SPIKES HOLLYWOOD'S ARSENAL
By Robert Basler, c 1986, Reuter
When today's movie hero steps out for a night of carnage, he carries the
niftiest, shiniest and deadliest hardware money can buy, weapons most
armies only dream of.
Hollywood has always shown the latest in clothes, music and cars, and
increasingly it is doing the same with weapons.
Things have changed since the days when the hero's gun never even needed
reloading. Nowadays, movie good guys like to load, caress and discuss
their guns as often as they can, clicking together an entire arsenal
just before the final massacre.
But while Hollywood has found that lead may be turned into gold,
movie-makers may have shot their wad.
A minor provision of a new federal gun law bars private citizens --
including those who supply the movie industry -- from buying any new
fully automatic weapons, the very sort that audiences love to watch.
"We're at the end of our line now," said Joe Lombardi, who has supplied
movies and television with weapons for 40 years. "The bottom line is
availability. Can you get it or can't you?"
Hollywood's woes seem to have come by accident, rather than anyone's
design. A spokeswoman for US Rep. Larry Smith, D-Fla, who authored the
machine-gun provision of the law, said Smith was not aware of the impact
the bill would have on the movie industry until after it became law.
A spokesman for the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which
enforces the law, said he knows movie-makers are upset. "What good is
Rambo if he has a Thompson (a dated machine gun) that looks kind of
chintzy?" he pointed out.
But he added that if Hollywood can't be content with using existing
machine guns, it must either film in a country where fully automatic
weapons are available, or get the law changed.
This is bad news for an industry that in recent years has paid more and
more attention to guns, raising weaponry to virtual co-star status with
the screen's macho stars.
For "Cobra," Sylvester Stallone's recent bloodbath, the studio did a
separate press release just to describe his exotic weapons.
While "Dirty Harry" -- Clint Eastwood's tough cop -- was content to send
people to hoodlum heaven with a giant .44-caliber Magnum revolver for
his first few movies, when "Sudden Impact" came out, he upped the ante
with a deadlier gun which, he said, wouldn't even leave enough of the
bad guys to take prints.
Lombardi, whose Special Effects Weaponry Inc. supplied Swarzenegger's
[sic, I'm sure that's misspelled -WM] firepower for "Raw Deal," said
because the new gun law has limited supply, the value of some
irreplaceable weapons could double.
All of this, he said, means he keeps a very close watch on what
movie-makers are doing with his guns.
"Nine out of ten times when you rent to other people they don't know how
the hell to use the gun, so when they send it back to you, you've got a
piece of junk left.
"So what do you do, take a $12,000 gun and let Rambo throw it to the
ground? Are you crazy? Even if he is Stallone, he'll never throw my gun
to the ground."
Syd Stembridge, whose family has been renting guns to the movies since
1920, said he frequents gun shows, always looking for new guns to
satisfy Hollywood's appetite for better and better weaponry.
"Every time somebody does a show, they always want something more exotic
than everybody else has," says Stembridge, vice president of Stembridge
Gun Rentals.
Some weapons enjoy waves of popularity. the feelings of gun suppliers
notwithstanding. The Uzi is a case in point.
"That's the lousiest gun in the world and everyone wants to use it,"
said Lombardi. [I wonder if they really mean the MAC series of
submachine guns here? I never heard anyone denigrate the Uzi as a combat
weapon before! -WM]
Similarly, Stembridge said that although Dirty Harry's latest pistol, a
.44-caliber Automag, is not a really popular gun and is no longer made,
it looks so good in the movies that Burt Reynolds is currently using one
for his latest film.
A technical adviser for the National Rifle Association said he hears
from angry gun enthusiasts who have been told by gun companies that
certain weapons just aren't available.
"Then," he said, "they turn on the television and some TV cop is using
the same gun they can't get."
*** End of article ***
Interesting... I wonder if these people can bring enough pressure and
organize with the legal full-auto enthusiasts and get that provision of
the new law repealed?
Regards, Willjkh@jade.BERKELEY.EDU (Jordan K. Hubbard) (10/10/86)
Article: 10:28
Thought the firearms groups might find this article amusing:
>From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Monday, Oct 6., 1986:
NEW GUN LAW SPIKES HOLLYWOOD'S ARSENAL
By Robert Basler, c 1986, Reuter
When today's movie hero steps out for a night of carnage, he carries the
niftiest, shiniest and deadliest hardware money can buy, weapons most
armies only dream of.
Hollywood has always shown the latest in clothes, music and cars, and
increasingly it is doing the same with weapons.
Things have changed since the days when the hero's gun never even needed
reloading. Nowadays, movie good guys like to load, caress and discuss
their guns as often as they can, clicking together an entire arsenal
just before the final massacre.
But while Hollywood has found that lead may be turned into gold,
movie-makers may have shot their wad.
A minor provision of a new federal gun law bars private citizens --
including those who supply the movie industry -- from buying any new
fully automatic weapons, the very sort that audiences love to watch.
"We're at the end of our line now," said Joe Lombardi, who has supplied
movies and television with weapons for 40 years. "The bottom line is
availability. Can you get it or can't you?"
Hollywood's woes seem to have come by accident, rather than anyone's
design. A spokeswoman for US Rep. Larry Smith, D-Fla, who authored the
machine-gun provision of the law, said Smith was not aware of the impact
the bill would have on the movie industry until after it became law.
A spokesman for the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which
enforces the law, said he knows movie-makers are upset. "What good is
Rambo if he has a Thompson (a dated machine gun) that looks kind of
chintzy?" he pointed out.
But he added that if Hollywood can't be content with using existing
machine guns, it must either film in a country where fully automatic
weapons are available, or get the law changed.
This is bad news for an industry that in recent years has paid more and
more attention to guns, raising weaponry to virtual co-star status with
the screen's macho stars.
For "Cobra," Sylvester Stallone's recent bloodbath, the studio did a
separate press release just to describe his exotic weapons.
While "Dirty Harry" -- Clint Eastwood's tough cop -- was content to send
people to hoodlum heaven with a giant .44-caliber Magnum revolver for
his first few movies, when "Sudden Impact" came out, he upped the ante
with a deadlier gun which, he said, wouldn't even leave enough of the
bad guys to take prints.
Lombardi, whose Special Effects Weaponry Inc. supplied Swarzenegger's
[sic, I'm sure that's misspelled -WM] firepower for "Raw Deal," said
because the new gun law has limited supply, the value of some
irreplaceable weapons could double.
All of this, he said, means he keeps a very close watch on what
movie-makers are doing with his guns.
"Nine out of ten times when you rent to other people they don't know how
the hell to use the gun, so when they send it back to you, you've got a
piece of junk left.
"So what do you do, take a $12,000 gun and let Rambo throw it to the
ground? Are you crazy? Even if he is Stallone, he'll never throw my gun
to the ground."
Syd Stembridge, whose family has been renting guns to the movies since
1920, said he frequents gun shows, always looking for new guns to
satisfy Hollywood's appetite for better and better weaponry.
"Every time somebody does a show, they always want something more exotic
than everybody else has," says Stembridge, vice president of Stembridge
Gun Rentals.
Some weapons enjoy waves of popularity. the feelings of gun suppliers
notwithstanding. The Uzi is a case in point.
"That's the lousiest gun in the world and everyone wants to use it,"
said Lombardi. [I wonder if they really mean the MAC series of
submachine guns here? I never heard anyone denigrate the Uzi as a combat
weapon before! -WM]
Similarly, Stembridge said that although Dirty Harry's latest pistol, a
.44-caliber Automag, is not a really popular gun and is no longer made,
it looks so good in the movies that Burt Reynolds is currently using one
for his latest film.
A technical adviser for the National Rifle Association said he hears
from angry gun enthusiasts who have been told by gun companies that
certain weapons just aren't available.
"Then," he said, "they turn on the television and some TV cop is using
the same gun they can't get."
*** End of article ***
Interesting... I wonder if these people can bring enough pressure and
organize with the legal full-auto enthusiasts and get that provision of
the new law repealed?
Regards, Will