Ray casting - shooting a gun..

[browncrow]

Hello Everybody...
I am working with a 3rd person shooting game as a windows application.I have a model of a player and a gun separately....I want to know two things....

1. How can i attach the gun in my player's hand by scripting ??..gun have 3 joint and player also have joints in his hand....

2. I have completed ray casting code with the gun model.....just check by drawing a line from gun front joint to the point where the ray casting hit. and checked the hit model name as well as transition and distance.
I want to know...what is the next step to show the gun shooting....gun fire particle show,sound and hit to the object with a texture mapping.

Please help me.....I am waiting for your reply.....Thanks in advance....