From: "Terry L. Smith" Newsgroups: alt.humor.best-of-usenet Subject: [rec.arts.sf.written] Re: Dialogue Cut From "Starship Troopers" Film Date: 21 Mar 1999 23:05:14 GMT Subject: Re: Dialogue Cut From "Starship Troopers" Film From: Mike Schilling Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written John Schilling wrote: > The utility of firearms derives almost entirely from their very substantial > deterrent effect, i.e. the ability to plausibly threaten death or great > bodily harm. A gun is not a tool that you point at someone to make them > fall down, it is a tool that you use to point at someone to make them run > away. > > Stunners are a decidely poor substitute however tactically effective, and > I'm not at all certain that a policeman's chances of surviving a day on > the job wouldn't be better with a couple of flintlock pistols than with > a Star Trek phaser locked on stun. I know what you're thinking. That's a police stunner, and they're not serviced very well or very often. The dial is set to stun, but it hasn't been calibrated recently, and it may be lethal as hell. Now ask yourself, punk, do you feel lucky?