Mexico Drug War Causes Wild West Blood Bath

I do believe that every time I read a New York Times story that mentions firearms, I find something just plain wrong — and I'm hardly a gun nut. From Mexico Drug War Causes Wild West Blood Bath:

One sign of the desperation to end organized crime in this border town [of Ciudad Juárez] is that the good guy on the police recruitment posters is not a clean-cut youth in a smart police cap, but a menacing soldier in a black mask and helmet carrying a heavy machine gun.

Heavy machine gun means something; it refers to heavy, typically tripod-mounted, crew-served, automatic weapons, like the water-cooled Maxim machine gun or the .50-caliber Browning. These are not assault rifles, but replacements for light artillery field guns.