Guest Editorial--Hoplophobia: "Crazy Is As Crazy Does."

FOREWORD: The response to Mike Vanderboegh's last guest piece was remarkable. The guy can really write. At the risk of putting myself out of business by showcasing more of his work, he's generously allowing me to post this new essay, and tells me another is on the way!

Hoplophobia: "Crazy Is As Crazy Does."

Mike Vanderboegh

I have long believed that the country I grew up in has in fact become two countries. These two countries, both of whom claim to be the United States of America, are divided along the fault lines of respect for life (abortion), liberty (taxes and guns), morality (Hollywood ethics and gay marriage) and even truth (”the meaning of is”). Reflecting this dichotomy is the language that each side uses to describe the other. Liberals are especially adept at using terminology to demonize their opponents: "religious fanatics" and "gun nuts" to name just two. I have been called both of these pejoratives countless times over the years, and yet I always resisted calling gun control advocates anything other than foolish or misdirected. I really do despise ad hominem attacks, having been on the receiving end of quite a few. So I never questioned a gun grabber's mental state with name-calling until recently, when I realized that nothing else quite described their behavior like "hoplophobe."

"Hoplophobia" comes from from the Greek hoplon, or weapon, and is a term coined by the great Colonel Jeff Cooper in 1962. As described in Wikipedia:

"(Cooper's) intent was to satirically use a clinical term to bring public recognition of the irrational fear of firearms and other forms of weaponry such as knives or explosives. He stated that 'the most common manifestation of hoplophobia is the idea that instruments possess a will of their own, apart from that of their user'. Hoplophobia is deemed to be a cultural side effect of those who engage in the primordial human belief systems that anthropologists refer to as 'animism', or the belief that inanimate objects can hold spirits that can affect human actions."

How else, other than hoplophobia, can you explain this recent Washington Times story by Valerie Richardson out of Littleton, Colorado with the headline "Community at odds over fallen hero's statue"?

"A planned statue depicting a local hero, a Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan, has drawn opposition from some parents, who say the image and location are inappropriate for children. A bronze sculpture of Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny Dietz Jr. showing him cradling his rifle across his chest is scheduled to be unveiled July 4 at Berry Park here, where he grew up and attended school. The statue was modeled after a photo of the young serviceman.. . .Petty Officer Dietz, 25, was awarded the Navy Cross, the service's second-highest award for valor after the Medal of Honor, for fighting off an ambush by insurgents in Afghanistan despite being mortally wounded. His actions were credited with helping a fellow Navy SEAL escape."

Seems straightforward, right? A hometown hero has a statue erected in his memory so that his sacrifice will not be forgotten by those he made it for. Ah, but enter the hoplophobes:

"But a group of parents wants the city to recast the statue or place it elsewhere, arguing that the site, near three elementary schools and two parks, is a hub for young children who could find the weapon disturbing."

Disturbing? DISTURBING?

"'While our hearts go out to the family of this brave young man, we have serious concerns regarding the graphic and violent detail the statue portrays,' stated a flier distributed recently in a nearby neighborhood. 'As a community, we cannot allow the many young children in this area to be exposed to a larger than life-size grenade-launching machine gun,' the flier stated."

Of course, the story continues,

"members of Petty Officer Dietz's family and others have defended the memorial, saying there's a clear distinction between a rifle used in combat to defend the United States and a firearm used in other contexts. But critics have said the image of an automatic rifle is particularly inappropriate given the memorial's proximity to Columbine High School. The high school, located a few miles from the park, was the site of the 1999 massacre in which two suicidal teenage gunmen killed 12 students and a teacher. 'In light of our community's experience with the Columbine tragedy, and the clear message of nonviolence that we teach in Littleton schools, what is our city thinking?' the flier stated."

The real question is "What are these morons smoking"? But of course it is not marijuana, it is merely the latest manifestation of hoplophobia. If I may paraphrase that famous Alabama philosopher, Mrs. Gump: "Crazy is as crazy does." What shall we do now, sanitize all the statues to our war dead? Shall we redo the Minuteman statue, replacing his musket with a pitchfork? Are you sure that's not too violent a substitute? I mean, pitchforks can kill folks too. How about an Iwo Jima memorial without M1 rifles? You know, sort of like the amiable Marines just hopped a tourist liner to visit Japanese territory and then decided to raise an American flag while the hospitable Imperial Army looked on in smiling approval. While were at it, we can reshape their helmets into construction site hardhats so as to make the whole thing less militaristic. And why don't we spruce up all those Civil War memorials by removing their muskets and replacing them with bouquets of daisies?

To my mind, objecting to a sculpture of a hero which includes the weapon he used in defense of his country just because two pimple-faced neoNazi wannabes who couldn't get dates used weapons (albeit entirely different in type and capability) to carry out a massacre in the "no guns allowed" criminal free fire zone of the local high school makes about as much sense as a militant lesbian objecting to the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile driving through a local grocery store's parking lot because it reminds her of a phallus. I mean, are we talking two different countries here, or entire alternate universes?

It's like the friend of mine who lived in California and got tired of all the "War Is NOT the Answer" peacenik bumper stickers he saw on his daily commute. He came up with an alternative sticker of his own which read: "If you think war is not the answer, it's because you don't understand the frigging question."

Dr. Sarah Thompson, in her 2000 article "Raging Against Self Defense: A Psychiatrist Examines The Anti-Gun Mentality", disagrees with Cooper's blanket terminology. Describing an acquaintance who is afraid of his neighbors owning guns because he is afraid they will shoot him, the scrupulously scientific Thompson posits:

"This is an example of what mental health professionals call projection – unconsciously projecting one's own unacceptable feelings onto other people, so that one doesn't have to own them. In some cases, the intolerable feelings are projected not onto a person, but onto an inanimate object, such as a gun, so that the projector believes the gun itself will murder him. Projection is a defense mechanism. Defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological mechanisms that protect us from feelings that we cannot consciously accept. They operate without our awareness, so that we don't have to deal consciously with 'forbidden' feelings and impulses. Thus, if you asked my e-mail correspondent if he really wanted to murder his neighbors, he would vehemently deny it, and insist that other people want to kill him. . . "

"Defense mechanisms are also frequently combined, so that an anti-gun person may use several defense mechanisms simultaneously. For example, my unfortunate correspondent uses projection to create a world in which all his neighbors want to murder him. As a result, he becomes more angry and fearful, and needs to employ even more defense mechanisms to cope. So he uses projection to attribute his own rage to others, he uses denial that there is any danger to protect himself from a world where he believes he is helpless and everyone wants to murder him, and he uses reaction formation to try to control everyone else's life because his own is so horribly out of control."

"Also, it's important to remember that not all anti-gun beliefs are the result of defense mechanisms. Some people suffer from gun phobia, an excessive and completely irrational fear of firearms, usually caused by the anti-gun conditioning they've been subjected to by the media, politicians, so-called 'educators,' and others. In some cases, gun phobia is caused by an authentic bad experience associated with a firearm. But with all due respect to Col. Jeff Cooper, who coined the term 'hoplophobia' to describe anti-gun people, most anti-gun people do not have true phobias. Interestingly, a person with a true phobia of guns realizes his fear is excessive or unreasonable, something most anti-gun folks will never admit."

(Dr. Thompson's article can be found in its entirety at: http://www.jpfo.org/ragingagainstselfdefense.htm).

So who's right-- the great Jeff Cooper, Dr. Thompson or both? Even after reading Dr. Thompson's article, I'm not entirely certain. But I do know this for sure: this country and all her people, including the hoplophobic nitwit housewives of Littleton, Colorado, owe their freedom from before the Founding up through today to brave men with scary guns like Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny Dietz Jr.

And I'll tell you something else I know for sure. In the practical, common sense corner of the universe that I inhabit, and in my own modest opinion, regardless of where such loonies get their fear of firearms and whether it's treatable or not, I know this with absolute certainty: THESE PEOPLE ARE NUTS!

Mike Vanderboegh
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126
GeorgeMason1776ATaol.com