Also, as an update to the original topic of the thread, yesterday, to my amusement, the guy who is "the" gun guy for theatre and film in the city wrote a letter of complaint about me to the artistic director of the theatre company.  He had called me around the time of the original post, letting me know that he has several prop guns he could also lend me, but that he could only meet me two days before the show opens.  I explained that through much hard work, I had found a gun by myself that works perfectly for what I need - a small hand-gun, easily concealed on a woman's body, that makes an audible "click" and doesn't fire.  He worried that the gun wasn't safe, I confirmed that the barrel had been stopped with lead, making the piece totally inoperable.  He offered to come by and give the cast some training with gun saftey, I told him that was fine, but that by the time he came back to town it would be too late to make any changes to the show, again, because it would be two days away from the opening.  He seemed pretty cool about it, but still wanted to stop by a technical rehearsal to make sure we weren't doing anything illegal.  I said that was cool, but that he needed to remember we would be tied up with other things.  He said he was used to film sets, where he had to wait hours at a time.   I said "fine, drop on by if you can."

There were several issues that arose during rehearsals that needed my immediate and full attention after that.  When he appeared, I had all but forgotten that he was coming, but there he was.  I politely greeted him, and then showed him the gun, he agreed that it was impossible to hurt anyone with the piece I had found, then produced two are three obvious prop guns, that didn't make any "click" sound when fired without being loaded - not what I needed.  I thanked him for bringing them in, but reminded him that like I had said on the phone, what I had found was perfect.  I offered that he could speak to the cast about safety, but he said that there was no need with the gun we were using - that as long as we didn't hit anyone with the gun, there was no way anyone could be hurt.  I thanked him and invited him to head out if he wanted to, but he said he's like to watch the rehearsal out of personal interest anyway.  So he sat in the audience, and we continued to rehearse.  He eventually slipped out.  So somehow out of that exchange, which was polite on both ends, and seemed to exactly meet the parameters of what we had discussed on the phone earlier, he got very angry, wrote a lengthy letter of complaint, and said he never wanted to work for a small theatre company again.

Quote from: "Teslaguy"

A ceiling fan will kill you, If you are stupid enough to stick your head in it. I suppose it would be hard to be killed by a small fern.

My coil, static and active, is available for viewing

I've tweaked it since these old pictures.  Now it shoots a good 7 feet.

As cool as a guy who plays with lightning has to be, obviously you haven't bneen watching Mythbusters.

Edit: WELCOME, REAL-LIFE JAIME THE SCIENCE FRIEND!