He’s spent half the season so far in a sick bed on The Walking Dead, but now Chandler Riggs’ character Carl Grimes is starting to come into his own.

In a new interview with AMC, Riggs talks about handling a gun on set and why there’s a conflict between two laws that apply to him.

From the interview:

Q: Carl is always trying to use the gun — and he eventually get his hands on one this season. Were you excited to tote around these grown-up weapons?

A: This is funny: I think Georgia law says I can shoot any gun that I want when I’m 8. But I can’t touch anything that will fire a projectile on set. You have to be 14 to do it on set I think. So the gun I was carrying around was actually a cap gun. It was originally painted orange so we spray-painted it black. The knife is real too, though it is dull. One time on set, I actually pinched myself with the saw part of the blade — and my hand was gushing blood in the middle of the take! So when I lifted my shirt, I did it with one hand so I didn’t get blood all over the gun and my shirt — and make the wardrobe department angry.

Do you think Carl’s gun training will be paying off? Will he actually be involved in some zombie shooting?