I meant at the time of the photo shoot.. I don't believe he flat out refused to hold a gun, I believe it was just an oversight for the promo photo for 007 that the PPK was in the US and that photo was taken in the UK, so the sensible thing to do was to use a gun that looked a bit like the PPK.

Apparently the promo photo was later edited to shorten the barrel of the LP53 when that photo was published in the US.