text: It was the year 2022, and things had never been safer. As part of the new Global Initiative, every citizen of the world (above the age of 16) carried a gun with them everywhere they went. A few years back everyone decided that the only way to combat the spontaneous outbursts of senseless violence was to neutralize the threat on the spot. It became a part of every school's curriculum, and there were globally mandated courses for the adults: how to safely handle a gun, how to use it effectively, how to make smart decisions in a moment of crisis. And here I stand, one of the last few people on Earth, because it all got shot to shit. At its inception, the new Initiative was hailed for its proactive and responsible measures. Of course, there were a few bad apples that tried to ruin it for everyone, but they were subdued swiftly by their surrounding peers, their intended victims. After a few years the number of wild outlaws and cowardly terrorists dropped down to zero. Person on person crime was virtually non-existent. The wicked were weeded out and only the righteous remained. At least, that's what it felt like to the Average Mohammed. It should be mentioned that the gun sellers played their part well when this peace between Citizens came to be. Since they were able to provide arms for every person, they didn't need to be involved with seedy groups and smugglers to inflate their profits, according to their public statements. But business was still booming for them in other areas. Yes, war still raged on, mostly over land and resources, but that was considered "normal". The Earth's population all agreed on one thing, that war just couldn't be avoided. But still, people felt safer than ever before. They weren't afraid to go to crowded places: malls, theaters, red light districts. The children were completely well guarded in their schools too. Everyone knew that they had each other's backs in their local communities. But then people started getting careless. Some stopped carrying their guns, because they felt sure they were surrounded by other responsible people who would be more useful in a crisis. Others, now with no common enemy in their personal lives, became mistrustful of all those around them, developing itchy trigger fingers at the slightest hint of suspicious actions. Some people said it was the temperature that day, some say it was the fear of dwindling resources, but in July of 2022, a New American shot an unarmed neighbor who he "suspected of planning a terrorist attack". It was the first shot fired, between Civilians, in over 3 years. There was an investigation, there were people who called for the shooter to have his gun taken away, and then there was the shooter himself. He finally admitted "I only shot him because he was just SUCH an ASSHOLE." Something changed in the air that day. People suddenly started whispering. Was the shooter actually the asshole in this scenario? What did the victim do that made him an asshole? After all, the Global Initiative to arm the planet was only meant to thwart terrorists and madmen. But what about assholes? They still existed in their little pockets of society, they were still affecting the lives of the general populace in a negative way. The consensus was that the next step needed to be taken, to rid the world of all the assholes. But how to do that? Most assholes had groups of people, maybe friends or family, that would vouch for them in an Asshole Inquiry. Should it be put to some sort of utilitarian Global Vote? Everyone vote on each other, if they're an asshole or not, and anyone with more votes leaning towards asshole would be "handled". Well, who would do the "handling"? It seemed logically that anyone willing to execute an asshole for being an asshole, might just be an asshole as well. So the whole idea was scrapped. It turned out that some of those pardoned assholes were bad apples in hiding; now that the rules had changed over the past few years, they started to see opportunity where they saw weakness in the social structure. It started slowly. A robbery of an unarmed Civilian here. A banker murdered in a dark alley there. We all pretended to be calm about it, but to our most trusted circles we knew something big was coming. It's hard to figure out how it all happened, but it was like if the historic "shot heard round the world" happened 9 billion times.......