Two days ago I wrote a post about Taran Tactical training Halle Berry, and it was not well received here or over at SayUncle.

I might as well go for broke on this.

According to Taran Butler’s website, he’s got a wealth of wins on the pro shooting circuit in IDPA, 3-Gun, USPSA and others.  He also trains the glitterati.

Taran has trained movie producers, directors and actors including James Cameron, Michael Mann, Keanu Reeves, Shemar Moore, Michael B Jordan, Jennifer Garner, Collin Farrell, Chris Hemsworth, and Josh Duhamel. Taran has worked on location or hosted movie training at his 20 acre range for many films including Public Enemies, Miami Vice, Transformers, The Kingdom, Avatar, and Savages. Taran is a reoccurring guest expert on History Channel’s Top Shot.

He’s based in Simi Valley, California.  Which is in Ventura, California, which is part of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Statistical Area.

So how in the hell does he manage to have all these high capacity magazines, AR-15’s, and everything else banned in the state of California?

How is Halle Berry able to run around his private ranch with a 30 round mag and no bullet button and not go to prison?

Because – and I have this information first hand from someone in the gun industry who knows Butler and has made prop guns for Hollywood productions – the rules are different for people in the entertainment industry.

Because Taran Butler is the gun trainer to the stars the rules that apply to the rest of the gun owners of California don’t apply to him.

He’s the king’s armorer so he can have a sword.  Us peasants can’t.

Para Ordnance told Hollywood to piss off after making guns for Liam Neeson in Taken 3.

Ronnie Barrett refuses to sell or service weapons to California law enforcement becuase of their AWB.

Those are companies with principles.

So what upsets me is that a man who made his career and name in the shooting world has found a way to have his cake of living in So Cal, while eating it too, and having all the banned guns, by selling out to Hollywood.

For example, did you ever wonder how Hollywood gets all those machine guns and how some felon turned actor can run around with one while filming?

This is how.

Those people are either an FFL 09 – Dealer in destructive devices, or an FFL 10 – Manufacturer of destructive devices, ammunition for destructive devices or armor piercing ammunition.  They buy machine guns and convert them into blank firing props, which still are technically machine guns.  They have their people on the set maintaining control of the weapons so they are not technically transferred.

If you have ever been to a shooting range that rents machine guns, that is how it works.  They are a destructive device dealer, and you can handle the gun on their property, but it’s not legally transferred to you.  Same thing with prop guns.

This is also how some actor with more drug convictions than award nominations can shoot a gun on a sound stage.  It’s not transferred to him.  It’s sketchy but everyone looks the other way and the movie gets made.

How do you get to be one of the lucky DD FFLs in California?  You know a studio exec who will vouch for you – and maybe donate some money to some local politicians – so the local LEO’s will sign off on your FFL application.

It doesn’t hurt if you are also ex-military or an ex-LEO.

So it is all the result of wheeling and dealing and glad-handing between Hollywood elites and politicians to grant special favors to some select few.  If you or I or anyone else without studio backing tried to get a DD FFL in LA, we’d probably be raided by an LAPD SWAT team.

Miguel and I have written a lot about the problem with corruption an NYC concealed carry permits.  It is a festering cesspool of corruption and glad handing.

Well, I feel the same way about Taran Tactical, using his Hollywood connections to amass an arsenal near downtown LA, that would get any other civilian a lifetime in a California state prison.