What Is Prop Gun? Can Prop Gun Filled With Blanks Kill?

The prop gun tragedy that befell Alec Baldwin yesterday is not the first of its kind. In 1984, actor Jon-Erik Hexum died from a self-inflicted gunshot involving a firearm with blanks.

Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee’s son also died at 28 after a fatal shooting incident involving a prop gun.

So what exactly is a prop gun? To start, prop guns can mean different things. The term can mean fake as well as real weapons that are used as props. However, most prop guns mean real weapons adapted for blanks.

Movie producers use prop guns and blanks in productions to give authenticity to movies. When you fire a blank with a prop gun, you will get a loud bang, a recoil, and a muzzle flash, which is light created by powder combustion.

To answer whether a prop gun filled with a blank can kill, we first have to understand what blanks are. Blanks are simply modified real bullets. Modern bullets are made of a cartridge, consisting of a shell, which houses a propellant powder.

When a gun fires, it ignites the propellant, firing the bullet attached to the front of the shell forward. Blanks, on the other hand, have materials such as cotton or paper attached to the front instead of a metal projectile.

Blanks could be dangerous. According to a source from the University of Utah propellant gases in blanks can produce severe and even lethal injuries.

In addition, Turkish researchers say criminology studies have shown that the pressure at the barrel at discharge “may provide the energy necessary for penetrating the skin and thus may lead to life-threatening injuries especially when fired at close range.”