whatever i figured it out.
it would be nice if people would post the solutions they discover that actually work by saying such and such solution worked for me.. or even better just take a screenshot quickly for heavensake or write it out even. That way when someone runs into the same problem you had and needs help they can actually learn something too!
anyways here is what i did:
Make an instance variable for your player sprite. Do this by clicking the sprite image and going to over properties find Instance variables add/edit and create that sucker.. i named mine bulletdelay _but you can name it anything_ and under type change it to boolean and then set the initial value to true.
Events/Conditions:
mouse - on left clicked
playersprite - is boolean instance variable set - bulletdelay
Actions:
playersprite - set bulletdelay to true
playersprite - spawn (bullet)
playersprite - set bulletdelay to false
system - wait x seconds
playersprite - set bulletdelay to true