There was a moment most of us have forgotten in the early era of cell phones when some people said, nope, not for me.

But as more and more people bought them and used them, cell phones stopped seeming like a specialty item and started to become what they are now, tools that feel essential even to people who had lived decades of our lives without them.

Could that be true for guns in America?

From KERA in Dallas, this is think.

I'm Chris Boyd.

To be clear, less than a third of American adults

actually own one or more firearms. And even if you loop in the adults who live with another

adult who owns a gun, that's still fewer than half of us. But because gun violence is ever

present in the headlines, it can feel as if the only way to have a chance at staying safe is to own a machine designed to kill, especially if, like my guest, you have been frequently and credibly threatened.

Roxanne Gay is a contributing writer for The New York Times.

As the daughter of Haitian immigrants in Midwestern towns with low crime rates, she didn't grow up with guns and

for a long time described herself as hating them. That changed when the trolls who have long

harassed her for her writing started to threaten not only her but also her wife. Her new

collection of essays is called Stand Your Ground, a black feminist reckoning with America's

gun problem.

Roxanne, welcome to think.

Hi, Chris.

Thank you so much for having me.

You write here that gun violence is a black feminist issue.

Tell us a little bit about how you came to that conclusion.

Well, first of all, I think that gun violence is every kind of issue, especially in how

pervasive it has become. But I believe it's a particular concern for black women because we are

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