August 15, 2024. My family's ranch in Paraguay was attacked. Two dead, one hostage got away. I was in Sydney, 13,000 km away, and there was nothing I could do.
I went to the workshop the same day with no plan and built three guns: an UZI, an MP5 and a Glock. You know what they are from across the room. None of them work. None of them have triggers.
I never meant to add the triggers later. Without a trigger you can't fire it, you can't protect anyone, you can't change anything. That's how I felt. It looks like a gun and it can't do anything a gun does.
NO TRIGGER
For 14 months I called them form studies and told everyone "they don't have a trigger, they don't do anything." I said it without hearing myself.
I thought about adding triggers loads of times. I bought a 3D printer, I had the tools, the materials, the skill, and I printed heaps of other stuff. Never a trigger. Some part of me knew they were already finished.
Moving to Australia gave me a safe life. It also means that when something goes wrong in Paraguay I can't help. 13,000 km, at least 19 hours of flying and $2,000 for a ticket. You can't get there in time.
I didn't pick the guns on purpose either, but looking back it's obvious. The UZI is the guerrilla gun, the fights over land. The MP5 is the one from the 1980 Iran embassy siege, a hostage gun, and someone from San Ignacio was taken hostage and I couldn't help. The Glock is the everyday defence pistol, the defence I couldn't give.
“If I'd been at San Ignacio that day, what could I actually have done? Maybe distance doesn't make you powerless. Maybe it just shows you how little you could do anyway.”
NO PLAN
The day the news came I went to the workshop and just started, with no plan. Aluminium rods, plywood, L-brackets, whatever was there. The UZI took about 3 hours. The MP5 and the Glock took 3 or 4 hours each over the next few days. About 10 hours all up, and I couldn't stop.
Each one has a trigger guard with an empty space where the trigger should go. That gap stays.
At first leaving it empty felt wrong. I had to sit with that. The wrong feeling was the point.
Three guns built in about 10 hours after the ranch attack on August 15, 2024. None of them work. None of them have triggers.
The MP5, the gun from the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London. Someone from San Ignacio was taken hostage and I couldn't help.
The UZI, the guerrilla gun. Aluminium rod, plywood and L-brackets. A gun for fights over land I can't get to.
The Glock, the everyday defence pistol. The defence I couldn't give.
Materials: Aluminium rod for the frame, plywood for the shapes, L-brackets to hold it together
Size: Real gun size (UZI, MP5, Glock)
How it's made: Rods cut roughly to length, plywood cut to the gun shapes, all joined with L-brackets and filed by hand to fit. Every joint can be undone and replaced. Cold, plain materials.
The missing trigger: Every one has a trigger guard with an empty space where the trigger would go. You can see something's missing.
Built: August 2024, over a few days straight after the attack. About 10 hours all up.
The guns: UZI, the guerrilla gun. MP5, the hostage rescue gun. Glock, the everyday defence pistol.
Status: They just sit there. They can't do anything.
Context in Series
#6 of 12, the start of the second part. Discourse Apparatus was about the apps. This one is about distance. Moving here gave me a safe life, and it also means I can't protect my family when something happens over there.
Three guns with no triggers. They look the part and can't do anything. I still don't know if being there would have changed anything, or just shown me how little I could do.
Next are Eternal Recurrence Link and Luisón, where it stops being just about me and becomes about the same things happening to everyone, over and over.