“Weaponisation” as a negative concept was something to which I was completely unfamiliar while growing up. Though I spent most of my childhood in Lahore, my rural, agricultural background meant arms had always been a regular presence in my life. I had learnt to fire, load/unload and clean them as a child. It was an unquestionable truth in my environment that guns were integral to our protection and our status. Though in hindsight, I find it ironic that I was taught to handle weapons but I was never allowed to own them because of my gender.
It was only after I met an anti-arms activist for the first time after my teens, that I was introduced to the menace this “weaponisation” had become in our country. Years down the road, I am now able to recognise and identify the menace of weaponisation of Pakistani society and its adverse effects on us. It’s everywhere: the display and use of personal weapons.