Also, I don't like the idea of barrels.rotateZ increasing infinately so I changed the code from:

if (aim_locator.Firing>0){
barrels.rotateZ += barrels.rotateZ*aim_locator.Firing*10;
};

to this:

if (aim_locator.Firing>0){
barrels.rotateZ = (barrels.rotateZ+aim_locator.Firing*10)%360;
};

This way the rotateZ value of the barrels is always in the range of 0-359.

I am not sure this really matters, but I don't know what maya does if the repeated addition of the value 10*aim_locater to the rotation value exceeds the limit of what maya can store.

It all seems to work if I can figure out how to get the flashes to look like the photo in the demo page I would be very happy.