Guns. Lots of Guns!  matrix-lobby-scene-3I’ll admit it. I don’t
get America’s obsession with guns. Not outside of the Matrix,
anyway, which is still totally awesome. Where I grew up the only
people who had guns were criminals and the police; neither of
which you wanted to run into after dark.  I grew up in some
of the shittier neighborhoods in NYC.  And when I say shitty I’m
not talking about a liquor store with bulletproof glass. I’m
talking pre-Guiliani New York, complete with a crack house
across the street and an illegal numbers spot down the block. 
When I was in grade school a stray bullet came through the
kitchen window right next to where I was ironing my clothes.  We
never really got an explanation of who or why from the
police.  Nor was there a whole lot of interest from the
authorities when a family member was wounded by gunfire at a
block party.  That sort of thing was quasi-normal in my
neighborhood.  The thing is, it never occurred to me that having
a gun would have made me more safe.  Quite the