There are three kinds of staff weapons they use on Stargate: rubber ones for fight scenes, stiff ones for carrying, and the operational ones that pop open and fire a charge. The props people go to great pains to remind guest stars and extras that working staff weapons must first be opened and *then* fired or else they're destroyed. Inevitably, the newcomer is starting to get irked by the third reminder -- and just as inevitably they fail to remember to open it first and countless numbers of staff weapons have met their untimely demise by being fired prior to housing being opened.