"Guns Don't Die" is an episode of "Quincy" from 1982 and it's clearly a copy of the "Hawaii Five-O" episode "Diary of a Gun" from 1975. Normally, I might say the two shows are similar but here it's so similar that I can't help but think this one is just a ripoff of the earlier show. On top of that, "Hawaii Five-O" managed to convey the story in a much less preachy and more convincing manner.
This show traces the path of a single 'Saturday Night Special' (a cheap gun intended for robberies and non-sporting uses) during a VERY short period of time. From the first incident where someone is shot, the gun goes on with different owners to kill others again and again. As I said, this idea is right from "Hawaii Five-O". It also is incredibly unrealistic, as this cheap .22 caliber gun is incredibly lethal and accurate--something you wouldn't expect from a gun like this. Plus, it seemed very unrealistic that it went from one crime to another to another so quickly--it must have been some sort of world record for lethality of a gun with each subsequent owner! The bottom line is that although I an not anti-gun, I gave the "Hawaii Five-O" episode an 8. It was well-written and made me think. This "Quincy" show, on the other hand, really was a pale imitation. It also featured levels of preachiness that were amazing--such as when Asten, Quincy and Sam sat around throwing out gun violence statistics--not like they were talking but that they were tossing facts at the audience. Later, Quincy did essentially the same thing as he had a coffee break with Monahan! In other words, the show was NOT entertaining but meant to educate. Why couldn't it have done BOTH?!
"Guns don't die...people do!"