BurningMan Prankery! One especially annoying 'community guideline' handed down by the BurningMan powers-that-be was the "NO GUNS" rule. I oppose most gun control anyway, but this was especially disturbing. No one has ever been shot at BM, but the med tent is always full of overdoses and drug-related problems (dude, I was so high I forgot to drink any water...). Yet while 'radical self expression' can no longer include having a gun on the playa, it's still perfectly acceptable to get fucked up and make yourself a pest & a burden to everyone else!

For a couple months before the event itself, you could email in a description of your theme camp or village, to be posted on a long list at www.burningman.com. I decided to show some open contempt for the 'no guns' rule, by registering a theme camp- so I mailed this in to the theme-camp-posting-people. hi -please list my theme camp. thank you. CAMP "WEAPON"- It's a dangerous playa out there, and the second amendment is no good anymore at black rock city. Please bring raw materials for primitive self-defense weapons- bats, golf clubs, fence-posts, and the like. Our counselors will help you make a simple but effective blunt-trauma weapon. Contributions welcome in the form of duct tape, nylon rope, non-skid tape, and so forth. P.S. If we're asleep, do NOT wake us up. I wanted to make the point that guns don't menace people, people menace people. We could be far more dangerous & frightening with bats in our hands, than we would be if we were (responsibly) armed to the teeth with a camp full of firearms. Plus, the idea of stoned deadheads wandering around with clubs & spears was meant to horrify the BurningMan management, and cause them to again renege on the promise of 'radical self-expression'. My theme camp was never even posted on the list! Hardly surprising, really. Many in our camp really did bring stuff for 'camp weapon'. When BM told Disgruntled Postal Workers we couldn't use real (unloaded) guns in our performance anymore, all the supplies were called into use. So instead of unloaded guns, we moved around the playa with golf clubs, bats, and spears.