Fiction

Not sure what to do with this page. Maybe I'll post ideas that come to me when I'm not at a keyboard. I'll plant ideas in this page and see if the seeds grow into anything useful.

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One of the arguments I hear when I say I’m in favor of banning assault weapons is that the gun is not to blame; I should blame the person responsible for the murder. If we were to ban assault weapons, they say, the killer would use something else, like a hammer or knife. I try (in vain) to tell these folks that, unlike other tools, an assault weapon is designed, marketed, and used to kill as many people as quickly as possible. It’s one of the few inanimate objects that, when used correctly, people die, and when not used for its designed purpose—for instance, as a pool cue or putter—people don’t die. People tend to reach for the best tool available when there’s a job to be done. For example, there are many ways to cut grass: a razor blade, scissors, a weed-whacker, or a lawnmower.

Speaking of tools, I’ve reached for satire to tell this story: Blades of Grass.