The less lethal the weapon at hand, the less likely death will follow.

ECONOMIST: Why do so many young Americans end their own lives?

Det Insp Pirie said: ''A knife, even a kitchen knife, in the wrong hands is a lethal weapon.

BBC: Dundee woman guilty of murdering a man during a drunken row

This occurred to me (yet again) during the deafening first sequence of "Lethal Weapon 4, " which consists of an armor-clad gunman with a super-deluxe flame thrower and a submachine gun walking through what looks like the rainstorm that forced Noah to build an ark.

CNN: 'Lethal Weapon 4': Saying nothing, but loudly