IN a game of word association, “SoHo” and “guns” don’t exactly go together, but it turns out that the Manhattan neighborhood boasts one of the largest arsenals on the East Coast.
That’s where you’ll find Weapons Specialists, the company that for the past 30 years has helped thousands of screen shoot-’em-ups, cop dramas and spy thrillers look as real as real life.
Most of the assault rifles, Uzis and pistols stored in the company’s vault are in fact bona-fide killing machines – only modified to shoot blanks instead of bullets.
“It’s like a candy shop in here,” says Weapons Specialists owner Rick Washburn. “A producer can just walk in and point to the guns he wants.”
Movie stars in need of some theatrical firepower also stop by the vault. Sarah Jessica Parker just came by to ask Washburn if he had anything “small, light and pink.”
Most recently, Weapons Specialists is outfitting the new NBC drama “Kings,” which premieres Sunday night. The show takes places in an alternate New York City ruled by an all-powerful king played by Ian McShane from “Deadwood.”
To arm the king’s palace guard, Washburn was asked to procure guns that appeared modern – but distinct from common rifles. He settled on the JP-15, which the manufacturer describes as “suitable for competition, varmint or recreational use.”
Appropriately for the weapons-grade verisimilitude, anyone who wants to walk out the door with faux heat has to pass the same FBI background check required of any gun buyer.
The average rental price is about $100 per week for a regular handgun, but can go up significantly if a producer is interested in outfitting a mock SWAT team. The store also carries a range of historical weapons for rent, from Revolutionary War muskets to the kind of flint-tipped spear a caveman might have used to bring down a woolly mammoth.
There are no such beasts in “Kings,” though soldiers in that show do find themselves firing rocket launchers at massive tanks called Goliaths. To arm the actors, the props department makes regular runs from the show’s Brooklyn soundstages to Weapons Specialists.
“A rubber replica never looks as good close up as a real gun,” says Tom Minder, the military advisor on “Kings” and himself a retired Marine.
“And the actors love firing blanks. They’d be using real bullets if we let them. They’re always trying to invent reasons to whip out the weapon and shoot someone.”
jsilverman@nypost.com