).3. when someone requests a gun, they have to hand it over to someone who looks at the magazine. Preferably 2 people, one after another. Then s/he can hand it back to the actor
Well, theoretically I believe that would be the job of the armorer, who, in this case, was Hannah Gutierrez Reed. And I believe she took the fall.
4. why can’t they use fake guns?
I am about as tech-retarded as one can be, but I would assume that in this day and age of quite advanced AI, that something like that could be done and a shooting scene could be made to be quite realistic thanks to the magic of technology. But I truly don’t understand that tech stuff.
Back when I was an airline mechanic I once worked in a shop where there were some guys with what I thought were some pretty wacked out ideologies. Which is the polite way of referring to the subject. Anyway, they were into Civil War re-enactments, and one of them was telling me about one where someone slipped in some live ammo. I don’t remember all the details, or even if it was a local re-enactment, but I said, "Good thing it wasn’t a Vietnam War re-enactment," which this guy didn’t think was as humorous as I did.
But that brings me to the movie Heat which you once mentioned you really enjoyed. How about that last full-auto shoot-em-up scene? I really don’t know what kind of special effects and graphics went into that, but just think if it was done with real guns and blanks (which maybe it wasn’t) and someone slipped in a 30 round mag loaded with live rounds into one of those ARs . . . wow. Anyway, I suppose that scenario isn’t actually viable, as without getting too esoteric, I believe when they shoot blanks out of something in semi or full auto, they have to use special devices fitted to the muzzle which directs the muzzle gases backwards to work the action of the firearm. (I think that’s how it works, anyway.) So although the intention is not safety, it would work out as such. Except for the operator of the particular firearm involved, in whose case it might be catastrophic.
