Right:  I don't know where Pinoko-chan (from Black Jack) got this bazooka, but no one's going to take it away from her.  Because she's so cute?  No, because she strictly followed her convention's weapons policy.

"Excuse me, Mr. Stampede, I'll have to ask you to surrender your sidearm."  One of the most frustrating parts of a con, especially for first-time cosplayers, can be arriving with a finished costume only to have security tell you your weapon isn't allowed at the con.  All cons try to post their weapons policies online so you can check in advance, but weapons policies can be confusing, and when you are making a costume you intend to wear at many cons, it can be hard to know which guidelines to follow.

What is the universal convention weapons policy? 

There is no universal policy.  Every individual con has a unique weapons policy, and most cons revise theirs every year.  As a rule, you can't e-mail or phone the con and ask them to approve your weapon ahead of time– everything has to be done at the door at the security staff's discretion, so there is no way to know whether your weapon is allowed until you actually bring it to the desk.  In addition, since the people working at the security desk sometimes enforce the policies differently, you may even find that the same weapon is approved by one staffer and rejected by another at the same con.

Why are policies so variable? 

Convention weapons policies are usually not determined by the con staff but by the management of the location where the con takes place, or by local law.  In a state like Massachusetts where swords are illegal, the con is not allowed to let you carry them.  In a convention center which bans chemicals or liquids, you can't have a squirt gun.  If the con takes place at a school where even toy swords are banned, then toy swords will probably be banned at the con.

Conventions have to follow the laws and policies of their local areas, for their legal protection, and for the safety of convention attendees.  Some states have a "silhouette law" which means that if a cop sees someone running around with what looks like a real gun when seen in silhouette, the cop is allowed to shoot – note that even a bright pink toy gun looks real in silhouette.  This law may sound very abstract, but there have been incidents in the past where cosplayers were joking around with toy guns on the streets in front of convention centers and had the police pull their REAL guns on them.  If it will prevent a situation where a cosplayer might actually get shot by the police, I will happily leave all my guns at home.

What happens if I come to a con with a banned weapon?

It's not the end of the world.  The security staff at the con, who are usually very nice about it, will simply ask you to take the weapon back to your room.  If you don't have a hotel room, you can leave it with them in security headquarters and pick it up at the end of the convention.  I have done this many times, and never had my weapons come to any harm – in fact, while staffing, I have spent many a fun break sitting with the security folks and admiring the cosplay arsenal which accumulates in their office during the con.  Above all, make sure that the weapon is detachable from the rest of your costume, and that the character is still recognizable without the weapon, so if you do need to leave the weapon behind it won't ruin your costume.  Sure Alucard is better with his guns, but even without them he can still kick your... never mind.

Left: Wooden keyblades are usually fine at cons, but even if security confiscated them, this Sora and Riku would still be impressive enough to turn a lot of heads.

What can I do to make sure my weapon will be approved?

Since there is no way to plan ahead for an ever-changing weapons policy, the best thing to do is to find out what rules are common at cons and design your costume to fit those rules as much as possible.  You should always, always, always look up the weapons policy of any given con online before you go, but when you are designing your costume there are a few rules which are common at many conventions:

NO REAL METAL:  Pretty much no con will allow a real metal weapon of any kind, whether it's sharp or not.  So if you have a real metal sword, axe, sai, ninja kunai or other bladed weapon, it's a safe bet that you will not be allowed to carry it at the con.  Some cons' dealers' rooms sell real swords, but customers are instructed to take them back to their rooms or cars and lock them away, since they are not allowed to walk around with them.  Sometimes a plain metal pole is okay, as long as it isn't very heavy.  Spikes on metal armor are also sometimes problematic (to the great sorrow of Ed and Al Elric cosplayers) so do your best to make spikes either soft or removable, so you can wear the armor without the spikes if necessary.  One side-effect of the no-metal policy is that, if you carry a weapon which is not metal but looks like metal, you may frequently be stopped by security and asked to prove that it isn't metal.  Sometimes real weapons which are not metal, such as boken or wooden staffs, are also forbidden.

CHAINS AND ROPES:  In some states, a metal chain is a weapon by itself.  In others, any two objects connected by a chain or rope are legally a weapon, and illegal.  Because of this, many cons ban metal chains altogether, so if your character has chains you may be safer getting plastic ones and painting them silver.  Other cons don't allow chains at all.

Above: In this Full Cast group of Saiyuki Yaone's plastic spear, Homura's flaming sword, Sanzo's exorcism pistol, Xenon's machine gun, Shien's light whips and Chin Isou's throwing needles are all fine, but the chains Homura and Gojyo are showing off had to be peacebound or left at the desk.

 SCABBARDS AND PEACE-BONDING:  Some cons will let you carry a real weapon, or a boken, so long as it is Peacebound, which means that it is tied up inside its sheath so it can't be drawn.  Usually cons provide tape or string to tie weapons with, but this only works if the weapon has a scabbard to be tied into in the first place, so make sure to prepare a scabbard for your sword.  Sometimes costume weapons which come apart and connect by a chain (like Gojyo's staff) can also be Peacebound at cons that would otherwise not permit a weapon with a chain.

NO GUNS THAT SHOOT ANYTHING:  If conventions allow toy guns of any kind, they will usually not allow airsoft or paintball guns or any other kind of play gun that really shoots things, not even squirt guns.  To be safe, make sure your toy gun can't shoot anything.  Sometimes if you use a squirt or airsoft gun as the basis of a heavily-modified custom gun but strip it down and cover all the working parts so it can't possibly be loaded or fire, that will be okay.  Some cons don't allow guns with moving parts of any kind, because they have had problems in the past with people lying and saying airsoft guns weren't airsoft, but most cons allow moving parts so long as you can prove the gun can't fire.

ORANGE SAFETY TIPS ON ALL GUNS:  In most areas, toy guns are legally required to have a non-removable bright orange plastic tip, to make it easy to spot that they are fake.  Almost all toy guns you find in the store or online will have this tip already, but when you are making one yourself make sure to put an orange tip on it.  For my own custom guns, I usually use bright orange paper to make a rim around the tip, but orange paint or neon paint marker also works.  Sometimes pre-made guns' tips look more pink or red than orange – don't worry, so long as there is an orange-ish neon tip it will be fine.  DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT put an orange tip on a real gun to disguise it as a toy – that is very, very, very illegal.   Some cons don't permit guns that look real when holstered, since holsters cover the orange tips, making the police unable to tell that they are toys.  It sometimes works to make a holster with a hole in the bottom so the tip is visible, or else to put bright orange on the handle of the gun as well as the tip.  Note that New York city requires toy guns to be entirely neon-colored, not just the tip – most online toy gun stores offer special New York city Safe prop guns for use in theaters. 

Right: In the K costume I wear to intimidate my underlings while running con events, the bazooka and machine gun are acceptable almost anywhere, but some cons don't allow the pistols in my thigh and under-arm holsters, since you can't see the orange tips when they are put away.  A pistol with a red or orange handle would solve this problem.

WEIGHT AND LENGTH MATTER:  Any material, be it metal, wood or plastic, can hurt someone if it's heavy enough, so sometimes weapons are forbidden on the basis of size and weight.  Basically, the bigger a weapon is, the lighter you need to make it to keep it con safe.  No matter what kind of weapon it's supposed to look like, any long, heavy object is legally a "staff" which counts as a weapon in many states.  This does NOT mean that you can't bring Cloud's giant sword to a con, it just means you should make it out of foam or hollow plastic rather than heavy wood.  A small wooden sword is usually fine, but any weapon more than about four feet long should be light or hollow to avoid problems – the bigger the lighter.  This problem is the major reason why security staff will never approve a weapon without seeing it.  If you phone up and say, "I have a ten-foot long plastic Zabuza sword, is that okay?" they can't say "yes" or "no" over the phone since they can't actually feel the thing to see how heavy it is, and thus how dangerous.

To give you a sense of the weight scale, when I cosplay K, my dinky revolver that shoots a "bang" flag is made of metal, my standard pistols are solid plastic, my machine guns are hollow plastic, my small bazooka is cardboard, and my large bazooka is an extremely lightweight hollow plastic tube – all five guns weigh about the same amount, though the large bazooka is about twenty times the size of the "bang" pistol.  Security staff are fine with all of them, because they can tell with one feel that a bazooka that light couldn't hurt anyone even if I used it as a club.

Above: This Sephiroth had no problems with his wooden sword, but security took away all Ukyo's small throwing spatulas because they were real steel.  Unfortunately for Sephie, they let her keep the big one, since it was wood and not too heavy.

Short list of the most important steps to make sure your weapons will be okay at most cons:

GUNS: no guns that shoot anything, must have orange tip, orange handle if it looks real when holstered.

SWORDS: no real metal, not too heavy, make sure to have a sheath.

OTHER WEAPONS: avoid metal, avoid chains, nothing too heavy.

ARMOR: make sure any metal spikes can be detached from the rest of your costume, so you don't have to scrap the whole costume if you can't have the spikes.

Right: Sydney from Vagrant Story would be very sad if security made him take off his armor because of metal claws – fortunately, while he used metal for the arms, the claws are nice, soft duct tape.

My con's weapons policy stinks!  How can we change it so we can have whatever weapons we want?

The best way to get a more liberal weapons policy at your con is to follow the current policies strictly, and be on your best behavior.  Weapons policies are usually based on previous years' experience, and many convention centers and other host locations become more relaxed about weapons over time as they discover that cosplayers are responsible and don't run amok with their swords and guns.

 I spoke to the con chair of Llamacon, a con hosted by Simon's Rock College of Bard in Massachusetts.  At the first Llamacon in 2006, the school did not allow weapons of any kind, not even toys, but things are already changing.  "Part of why we'll (hopefully) be able to allow cosplay weapons next year is because our attendees were so well-behaved (Our only injury was a sprained thumb from a hug that somehow went wrong!). I think it's a testament to the maturity of most otaku that at cons with hundreds or even thousands of cosplayers, you rarely if every hear of people getting whacked in the head by Cloud's Buster Sword, Sango's boomerang, K's bazooka, Wolfwood's cross, Faye's chest--- okay, that last one was a bad example, but you get the idea. I hope that cosplayers continue to display the maturity they do in costume, so that they'll always have an opportunity to show off the full extent of their creative abilities."

Left:  These pairs of rivals got to kill each other in peace at our Chess Match, thanks to their careful weapon policy adherence.  Cloud's duct-tape sword and Sephiroth's wooden katana do an excellent job simulating metal.  Death Notes are universally allowed at cons.