Live ammo VS. blanks and the law.

[RockIsland]

I have attended four military ceremonies at Washington Crossing National Cemetery. In each case there were seven rifles, each fired three times. I thought it was a different version of a 21-gun salute, 3 x 7 being 21 total rounds fired.

My wife gave the dedication speech for the groundbreaking, when it was still a cornfield. The real ceremony, just the Guardians, Honor Guard, Sherriff Cunningham and a few others. Not the political photo op the next day, with Arlen Sphincter and Patrick Murphy.

[cdi]

Washington crossing is not very far from me.
I would happily act as an armorer for any VFW that needs it.

It would be a simple thing to inspect, load and issue their M1's out of the back of my truck and do the same after the ceremony.
It would squeeze a little more out of any seniors that are having trouble with the manual of arms.

I'd do the ceremony myself but even if I still had my dress uniform, I'd never fit into it.
I'm still 185 lbs. of solid muscle but now I have a delicious 20 lb. candy coating....

[Berncly]

John Erik Hexem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Hexum

On Friday, October 12, 1984, the cast and crew of Cover Up were filming the seventh episode of the series "Golden Opportunity" on Stage 17 of the 20th Century Fox lot. One of the scenes filmed that day called for Hexum's character to load bullets into a .44 Magnum handgun, so he was provided with a functional gun and blanks. When the scene did not play as the director wanted it to in the master shot, there was a delay in filming. Hexum became restless and impatient during the delay and began playing around to lighten the mood. He had unloaded all but one (blank) round, spun it, and—simulating Russian roulette with what he thought was a harmless weapon—he put the revolver to his right temple and pulled the trigger.[6]

Hexum was apparently unaware that his actions were dangerous. Blanks use paper or plastic wadding to seal gunpowder into the cartridge, and this wadding is propelled from the barrel of the gun with enough force to cause injury if the weapon is fired within a few feet of the body should it strike at a particularly vulnerable spot, such as the temple or the eye. At a close enough range, the effect of the powder gasses is a small explosion, so although the paper wadding in the blank that Hexum discharged did not penetrate his skull, there was enough blunt force trauma to shatter a quarter-sized piece of his skull and propel the pieces into his brain, causing massive hemorrhaging.[1][7]

Many people don't know that guns used in movies are often real weapons, sometimes modified, sometimes not.
There is supposed to be an armorer that bears ultimate responsibility for all weapons during a movie shoot.
The fact that this actor started playing around with the gun on set means the armorer was not doing his job.
In the Brandon Lee killing the armorer had been sent home, and the movie production was using the gun without the proper supervision and authority of the armorer.