Disabling an airsoft pistol

[sabinelagrande]

Setting: Modern day USA. My character is using a spring airsoft pistol like this one (link SFW, if your workplace doesn't mind airsoft guns) as a prop. He has a high degree of knowledge in this area. Conditions are ideal, this is taking place indoors, and my character has done this preparation himself, taking as much time as he needs. No one else

Comments

[slhuang]

It's easy to remove, break, or glue the mechanisms inside an airsoft so that it will lack the capability for firing. Once you do so, however, it won't cycle, and depending on how you break things may not even be able to have the hammer drawn back.

You could certainly also have him plug the barrel but I don't think it's necessary.

Your description in your post and in the comments seems to indicate he's utterly obsessive about safety and knows very little about guns. That being the case, I'd have him gut it completely and glue it together inside if he needs to. He can buy a few and fiddle with the way he tears things out so the hammer still works, but bear in mind that if he's breaking the inside of the gun, drawing back and releasing the hammer a lot might eventually lead to that breaking, too. Airsoft weapons are not particularly robust.

I know you said his "victim" doesn't know guns, but I find airsoft guns to be *ridiculously* different. I can easily tell visually between the two; feeling one would make it even more obvious, and the hammer and trigger both make plasticky clicking sounds instead of deadly metallic gun sounds. If you want something that really looks real, a better choice would be a demilled firearm or metal replica, but those are harder to get and more expensive.

Honestly, I think you can handwave this without running into trouble. :) As other posters have pointed out, you're already using a fake, unloaded gun, so nobody is going to call you on anything (other than the "never point a gun at anybody you don't intend to kill" part that your character's already violating no matter what ;) ). Your character's other safety measures will be icing on the cake, so to speak (from your readers' perspectives, I mean).