esther, Here's a trick that may work for you: Select you figure then select it's body. Load a ball prop, size doesn't matter. Load the gun figure, do not conform. Position the ball to emcompass the trigger. Use the hiearchy window and parent the gun's body to the ball. Use the ball to move the gun into the rough positon, you can still use the gun's trans and rotation dials for fine tuning. When you have the pose the way you want, parent the ball to either hand. Note: the gun will move with the figure. Turn off the ball's cast shadow and make it invisable. By using this method you can scale the gun and it's props if need be. Here is a rough idea of what it looks like.

I must remember to remember what it was I had to remember.