Three things to think about here - -
It sounds like maybe, in the editor, you are dragging the copy of the weapon as it lives in 20thCenturyMod.esp instead of the one your mod creates? maybe.
- There's 2 other ways to do this.
... You could merge your mod into 20thCenturyMod.esp wholesale using a program like FO3Plugin, but you will want to get permission from whoever made that mod if you want to upload it anywhere like that, especially if its got original work in it like someone else's textures and meshes and so on.
... You could refrain from adding 20thCenturyMod.esp items into the guts of your mod directly, and instead, force your mod to require 20thCenturyMod.esp as a "master". This requires you to use FO3edit to add 20thCenturyMod.esp back to your .esp's "master list" every time you save it in the GECK, because the GECK will strip out your .esp type master entry whenever you save the file. The GECK only wants .esm files to live in that master list of yours, long story on that but there is actually a good reason behind why it strips it out and makes you add it back in with another program.