Gran Torino

[Saym14]

good movie/

[Cokebottle]

Sorry for the misspelling. It can happen after about 8 shots of JD
Actually it could of been possible that Clint decided to use from his personal collection. He is a big gun buff and not your typical Hollywood liberal actor. Surplus shows us that it was indeed a prop that was used but its unreasonable for you to straight rule out the possibility that they could be operational and owned by him strictly because its a movie.

It was quite a reasonable assumption, regardless of Clint's status in the production.

Talk to user "Director" about the laws and requirements of using actual firearms on set.... even blank guns.
It's not like he could just "wear" his 1911 the whole time they were shooting.

Use of 100% prop guns, and digitally adding the flash in the scenes where they are fired, is far less expensive than having an armorer and the required security.
Even if the gang bangers guns were actual blank guns, the two scenes where they fired them could have been shot the same evening, or a couple of evenings.
Clint's M1 and 1911 are seen multiple times in the film.

Then there's the issue of insurance covering the actor's personal property vs studio rentals... I imagine they paid a pretty penny for the insurance coverage for Clint's Gran Torino (which is his personal vehicle).