Help me find a (very) fake gun to demonstrate safety devices!

April 12, 2024 12:47 PM

I run a program that promotes safe firearm storage. We have big money to expand the program this year and need some affordable fake handguns we can use to show how trigger locks work. Details within!

Our program is distributing a lot of handgun lockboxes and trigger locks in our state, many through partners with less experience at this than we have. These are being passed out at community events, and we’re requiring people to see them demonstrated first.

Lockboxes are pretty self explanatory, but we need replica firearms to show how trigger locks work. Our partner on this project is using a working airsoft gun for demonstrations. We’d prefer a replica that doesn’t shoot at all for various reasons, but it needs to be the size and shape of a real handgun and needs to be able to have a trigger lock put on it. We’re a government agency, so we can’t spend TOO much money.

On the off chance that anyone else here does gun safety device demos, what kind of pretend handgun have you used that might work?

posted by centrifugal to Grab Bag (7 answers total)

“Blue guns” are the standard for this. They’re about $50 if i recall correctly. I don’t think they’ll work with the locks that feed through the magazine and ejector, but they should work with the ones that insert into the trigger guard (i can’t remember if those rely on a trigger that actuates).

You may also have luck finding 3D print files on Thingiverse, for example.

You should be able to make an airsoft gun non-functional if all else fails.
posted by supercres at 1:04 PM on April 12 [4 favorites]

ASP and/or Blueguns might work (not really a subject expert here, somebody who knows more may come along later).

On preview: yup, there they come now.
posted by box at 1:05 PM on April 12

Many theater-supply places will rent or sell prop guns.
posted by mhoye at 2:13 PM on April 12 [1 favorite]

For just thru the trigger loop not the action there are a variety of cheap water guns that may suffice. Probably best to bring your lock to a toy store to make sure it fits.
posted by Mitheral at 2:41 PM on April 12

Here's a wooden practice gun, for $1.50. https://shogunsupplies.com/wooden-practice-gun/

Those blueguns look like they could be fully functional, metal dipped in plastice.
posted by at at 7:19 PM on April 12

A search for "toy gun" on Amazon turned up a bunch of fairly cheap toy guns for me, some relatively realistic-looking in terms of shape. If all you need is something the right shape and with a trigger to demonstrate a trigger lock, chances are you can find one there. Technically many of them do fire projectiles, but honestly there's no reason you'd have to load up the foam ammo most of them use.
posted by Aleyn at 9:32 PM on April 13

In Krav Maga training weapons are used. (Example here. Note: I found this site by searching for 'Krav Maga training weapons', and I don't have any personal experience with them.) In my experience, the training guns used in Krav Maga are fairly light-weight and don't have any moving parts.
posted by rjs at 12:45 AM on April 14