Bizarre Research - Word count 40,925 (wp) 50,500 (pr)

If any security type people keep tabs on what Internet users search for online, I must have been setting off red flags and alerts all over the place. Over recent weeks I have been researching various types of gun, knife and improvised weapons such as petrol bombs. I have spent time on the official websites of Walther, Glock, Lone Wolf and Gerber knives.

I have downloaded the instruction manual for a Walther P99, and studied the ammunition types accepted by the Glock 23 (9mm, by the way). I know how the folding mechanism on a Gerber FAST Draw knife works. I have read articles on the types of wounds created by these weapons, and how a stab wound to the heart brings about death - there's not that much blood, apparently.

If anyone, anywhere, kept track of what I've been browsing, they'd think I'd gone nuts. I'm particularly mindful of the tragic events in Virginia last week as I go through this stuff. I've never been interested in any kind of weaponry (guitars and cars are a different matter - Charvel guitars and Aston Martin V8 Vantages do more for me) and the apparent openness of American society to devices designed purely for the killing of other creatures has always struck me as bizarre, so I'm finding all this a bit - well, icky!

Anyway, if anyone from any international security agency is reading this - I'm just researching for my current novel. I'm not planning on causing mass destruction while going out in a blaze of glory, honest!

In other news...

I've had a really good weekend. Got some stuff done around the house, saw some friends who I haven't seen in ages, and got a decent amount of writing done.