I have a question. If you were involved in the making of a low-budget film... like perhaps “Sharknado” - lol.... would you use airsoft guns and simply not show the end of the barrel on screen (pretty cheap, right?) or use a real gun in front of a blue screen and splice that in with the proper scenery in the background?
I’d use the airsoft because there is an almost 0 chance of an accidental fatality due to dummassity.
Seriously, the left totally missed the boat on airsoft.
The replicas are set up to feel and operate very similarly to the real thing, enough to train young people so that when they are old enough, they can graduate seamlessly to the real thing.