>>>That movie, "Heat" is the best argument I've ever seen why ordinary citizens should not be allowed to own assault rifles.
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>>It's a movie, Al. I agree ordinary citizens should not be allowed to own assault rifles. Whatever assault rifles are exactly. It seems to be one of those phrases that can mean whatever you want it to mean.
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>Well, sure, I think we're agreed it's a movie.
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>I'm referring to the scene where (IIRC) de Niro, Kilmer & Co. shoot their way out of a police cordon (after a heist?). Again IIRC they used either M-16s or AR-15s - I don't think anyone would argue that those are assault rifles.


It was not a believable scene, nor do I think it was intended to be. Whatever the guns were, we agree they should not be generally available.

One of my favorite people on the Showbiz forum was a guy named John Hill. He was a screenwriter, an actually produced one. He wrote several scripts that were made into movies, most notably "Quigley Down Under". He also has an Emmy for his work on "L.A. Law", which he claims is in the back of a closet. John was a tough customer, a guy who could cut through the smoke of about any movie scene, stopwatch in hand. One of the few I remember him admiring unabashedly was not from a movie but a TV show. "St. Elsewhere." It was the episode where the David Morse character's wife dies. Simultaneously the hospital has a trauma patient who needs a heart transplant ricky tick. They ask if his wife's heart can be used. He says OK. The operation is performed successfully. Late that night, no one else around, he goes into her room where she is sleeping peacefully. He puts his stethoscope on her heart and listens to it beat. Thump thump, thump thump, thump thump. The shot dissolves and that's the end of the show.