The Untold Story of Hollywood Gun Culture (ft. Ballistic Dummy Lab)

State of the Second hosts Kaylee and John sit down with Chris from Ballistic Dummy Lab, the company behind the human-form ballistic dummies that have become a fixture in firearms YouTube. Chris explains the origin: he and his wife came from a special effects makeup background in film, and about 15 years ago a show called Deadliest Warrior asked them to build a ballistic dummy. It stayed a side project until 2019, when he made it a separate corporation. His company has been featured on Forged in Fire, Deadliest Warrior, and Hollywood Weapons, and the products have shown up as props on fiction shows like NCIS, CSI, and Bones. Chris gets into how the dummies are built. He walks through the two main testing mediums, the FBI formula at 10% concentration and the NATO formula at 20%, and why Ballistic Dummy Lab chose 20% for better shelf stability with the internals. He talks through casting resin bones to match tensile and break strength using data from a biomedical engineer he met on Deadliest Warrior, and the difference between the organic gel and a synthetic gel that has no shelf life. The conversation turns to Hollywood getting firearms wrong, the continuity errors his wife catches as an on-set effects artist, and the Alec Baldwin case, where Chris lays out where he sees negligence on the armorer and on Baldwin as both shooter and controlling producer. He praises trainers like Taryn and Gary Tours, who put actors through live fire so they respect the guns. The back half covers the industry. The hosts and Chris dig into the COVID gun-buying surge and an estimated 10 to 20 million new gun owners, the current powder shortage tied to NATO countries buying up the chemical to make powder for ongoing wars, the Vista Outdoor sale to a Czech group, and companies like CZ buying MagTech to control their own ammunition supply. Chris also shares the pop-culture side, how influencer videos from creators like Grand Thumb and Kentucky Ballistics made the brand recognizable to bank tellers and the UPS driver, his move from California to Woodstock, Georgia, and new products including a Vortex Optics commissioned bear head for testing bear defense rounds and a line of ballistic rabbits with bones and bleeding organs. Linksballisticdummylab.comQuestions this episode answers What is a ballistic dummy and how did Ballistic Dummy Lab get started? A ballistic dummy is a human-form test medium used to study ballistics, blunt force trauma, and cutting. Chris, who came from special effects makeup in film, was asked to build one for the show Deadliest Warrior about 15 years ago, ran it as a side project with his wife, and made Ballistic Dummy Lab a separate corporation in 2019. What is the difference between the FBI 10% and NATO 20% ballistic gel formulas, and which does the company use? The two are testing mediums at different gel concentrations, the FBI formula at 10% and the NATO formula at 20%. Ballistic Dummy Lab uses the 20% NATO formula because it gives better shelf stability for the internal components. How does Ballistic Dummy Lab make the bones and organs inside its dummies? Chris casts resin bones tuned to match real tensile and break strength, using data from a biomedical engineer he met on Deadliest Warrior. The dummies are built to a single uniform density rather than replicating the separate densities of skin, muscle, and bone. What is the difference between the organic gel and the synthetic gel? The organic gel is the traditional medium with a limited shelf life, while the synthetic gel has no shelf life. Both let you see the same results as long as you test consistently in the same medium. Where does Chris think the negligence lies in the Alec Baldwin shooting case? Chris places negligence on both the armorer and on Baldwin, who he sees as responsible as both the shooter and a controlling producer. His broader point is that anyone handling a firearm has to understand what is in their hands. Why are firearms companies like CZ buying or building their own ammunition manufacturing? Companies are moving to control their own ammunition supply, as when CZ bought MagTech to secure its own production. The conversation ties this to the Vista Outdoor sale to a Czech group and wider pressure on the ammunition supply chain. What is causing the current ammunition powder shortage? The shortage is tied to NATO countries buying up the chemical used to make powder for ongoing wars, which pulls that supply away from the commercial market. What new products is Ballistic Dummy Lab releasing, and where can you find the company online? Chris describes a bear head commissioned by Vortex Optics for testing bear-defense rounds and a line of ballistic rabbits with bones and bleeding organs. The company is online at ballisticdummylab.com. Chapters 00:00 — Meet Chris from Ballistic Dummy Lab 00:14 — What a ballistic dummy is and the 2019 start 01:15 — Shows they've worked on and special effects roots 03:09 — FBI vs NATO gel formulas and why 20% 06:10 — Casting the bones and organs 08:50 — Testing rounds and what bullets really do 11:50 — Moving the company from California to Georgia 16:21 — Tanks, cannons, and the wildest tests 17:53 — The Alec Baldwin case and on-set responsibility 22:10 — Actors who respect guns and the trainers behind them 29:57 — The COVID gun-buying surge 33:00 — Powder shortage and the ammunition supply chain 43:33 — Pop-culture fame, the bear head, and the rabbits 55:58 — Where to find Ballistic Dummy Lab About the guest Chris is the founder of Ballistic Dummy Lab, which makes human-form ballistic dummies used to test ballistics, blunt force trauma, and cutting. He came from a special effects makeup background in the film industry, and roughly 15 years ago was asked on the show Deadliest Warrior to create a ballistic dummy. He ran it as a side project with his wife before making it a separate corporation in 2019. His company and products have been featured on Forged in Fire, Deadliest Warrior, and Hollywood Weapons, and used as props on shows including NCIS, CSI, and Bones. He grew up in California and moved the company to Woodstock, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. His wife is an on-set special effects artist. Key quotes "We are not building an exact replica of the human body because you have skin, muscle, bone, they're all different densities. We're building something with all the same density." — Chris "As long as you use the same testing median, you're going to see the difference." — Chris "What has been interesting to me from the kind of view of media coming out of about it, is how fast the narrative blamed the firearm and not the people in charge of the firearm." — Kaylee "You have to understand what's in your hands or else, I mean, stuff happens." — Chris "I love that there's so much joy in your company, like, because you make a product that's just fun." — Kaylee