Gun Show — Albany, NY
In January
of 1998, my friend Martin and I went up to Albany to visit my family
and to get out of the city (NYC) for the weekend. I was showing
martin around the neighborhood where I grew up, which included the
Empire State Plaza, a marble and glass complex that's kind of like
a 1960s version of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Martin
and I were walking through the underground concourse level, when
suddenly a man approached us carrying a shotgun. The guy just
went past us without missing a beat, but it was pretty freaky. About
fifty feet later we came upon a Capitol Police station and I decided
I should go in and mention it.
Culture
Freak: "Um, I don't know if
there's a problem or anything, but we just saw some guy carrying
a shotgun."
Cop:
"Oh...well there's a gun show
going on in the convention center, so he's probably coming from
there."
This certainly
explained the situation, but I couldn't help but feel uneasy about
the fact that the policeman's logic meant that anyone could just
walk around downtown Albany with gun that day and not be suspicious,
because there was a gun show that day." Of course, we
then made a bee line to the gun show, my first and only. Martin's
too, I'm pretty sure, 'cause he's a Brit.
