POINT-BLANK.(movie weapons coordinator Rick Washburn)

Rick Washburn, a weapons coordinator, has a disarming way of greeting people: "Are you the guy that needs the 9-millimetre?" He works out of his loft apartment, a converted doll factory in SoHo. Truncheons, scimitars, and pipes lean against one wall, while a cat sleeps on the desk. A large walk-in safe contains more than three hundred guns, and that represents only a small part of Washburn's arsenal; there's a lot more in the basement. A casual glance inside the safe reveals a Civil War-era repeating rifle, an imposing grenade launcher, and a semi-automatic with the words "Read Manual Before Use" engraved on the barrel. There are also at least seven of those really small silver pistols that a special agent will pull from her stocking at an opportune moment.

If you are not a weapons coordinator, being around so many guns can make you feel giddy. You may get the urge to pick up an M16 and intone, in Rambo's hushed, hurt voice, "They drew first blood, not me!" Washburn has witnessed this kind of behavior before. When he brings his guns to the set, the actors often take the weapons and start "cowboying around with them." He has a little demonstration that helps dampen the Old West atmosphere: He borrows an apple from craft services and then fires a blank, execution style. The apple explodes. A blank creates a burst of hot gases that's powerful enough to burn through a human arm. It's essentially a miniature blowtorch. Because of the danger, Washburn reserves a special scorn for actors who like to "improvise" during gun scenes.

Washburn came to New York in 1979 to study acting and, perhaps because of his affinity for bodybuilding, he was often cast as a hit man. While appearing in one movie, he noticed that the prop people didn't know their stuff. Washburn hails from a part of Arkansas where it's not unusual for your sister to have a firearm, so he decided to offer his advice. That led to another job, and he eventually started his own company, Weapons Specialists, Ltd. Beginning with "The Cotton Club," in 1984, Washburn went on to furnish and supervise weaponry for "Billy Bathgate," "Cop Land," "Godzilla," and "Universal Soldier: The Return." If you want a war, he can do medieval, colonial, civil, modern, and future. He knows a guy in Jersey who can get you tanks. He's been in the business long enough to see ...