Charlayne's Blog

My brother and I used to sell knives, swords, and replica guns back in the 1980's at renaissance recreation groups and science fiction conventions. The guns we sold were the same weight and just a few centimeters smaller than the real thing. They were also made of an alloy that would not allow for firing. These were the "movie quality" prop used for things like "Valentines Day Massacre" and other moves.

 We came down to Houston for a convention in 1979 in a hotel in downtown. We had a very good weekend in sales and one of our guns was sold with a box that belonged to another gun so that it could be transported by the new owner on an airplane as cargo. That left our Thompson Submachine Gun replica without a box and it didn't fit in any of our cargo boxes (footlockers).

We loaded our suitcases and some of the merchandise on a bellcart while I settled the bil and my brother went to the parking garage to get the truck (the bellman was having trouble getting it started).

 I looked over and saw one of the bellboys playing with the Thompson that had been hung on the cart to be put in the cab behind the seats. I went over and took it away from him, pulled the bolt back and checked the sight to make sure nothing had been bent or broken.

About that time, a guy in a suit flashed a badge in my face and said "I'm Captain...........with Houston dignitary protection"  (or something like that, in all honesty, I was more freaked out with the badge and the gun I had in my hands than remembering the first part of the conversation).  He went on to say "Put that damned thing away."

I started into my sales speech about how it was a replica, etc. He cut me off and said "I know all about it, I checked you both out several days ago. But the Israeli's won't stop to ask if you point it at them, they will shoot first and sort it out later.

Moshe Dyan had been in the hotel about 15 minutes.

 I wrapped the Thompson in my jacket and shoved it under some of the stuff on the cart, saying "Thompson? What Thompson?"

 We had never thought about the replica's causing that much of a problem.

Now we probably wouldn't be able to sell them, which would be good because I would hate to have to deal with the guilt over having sold one of the replica's that ended up getting someone shot.