Hoplophobia: Pro-Gun ‘Doctors’ Invent Psychological Disorder To Discredit Victim Activists

This may one of the most repulsive moves yet by gun worshiping extremists bent on preserving the legitimate rights of the 2nd Amendment for murderers and madmen.

The Daily Caller, a web site run by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, posted an article that posits a theory about people who have survived gun violence or the families of deceased victims. The authors propose that such people are mentally unfit to express their opinions about the tragedies that they and their loved ones endured. These committed reformers, the authors allege, are suffering from “hoplophobia,” a fake condition that is not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association or any other mental health authority.

Hoplophobia

The term was coined by the late Jeff Cooper, a former board member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and is defined by him as “a morbid fear of guns.” TheDC argues that people who have had traumatic experiences involving gun violence cannot construct rational opinions about public firearms policy because they have been damaged psychologically. The article falsely asserts that hoplophobia is “a real, extremely dangerous, widespread, and clinically recognizable complex specific phobia.” No, actually, it is none of those things. It is the creation of a politically motivated lobbyist for weapons manufacturers. Which makes this statement from the article all the more absurd:

“Many doctors are guilty of ‘boundary violations’ when they, with some frequency, inject anti-gun political opinions or content into their clinical work as health-care providers. It is our assertion that this constitutes several serious ethical violations including at least: mixing politics and health care.”

As a representative of the NRA, and not a medical professional, it is undeniable that Cooper’s conflation of politics and medicine is an outright ethical violation that the article itself later condemns as “practicing outside one’s recognized fields of expertise.” As the article progresses interminably through its jargon-laden mush of pseudo-science, it never makes a coherent argument to support its premise that victims are not credible witnesses or activists. Yet it does glorify its own intellectual silliness with the hyperbolic claim that “Hoplophobia is far and away the most dangerous of all phobias.”

It is easy to assert that a phobia you make up yourself is the worst one ever, but it is much harder to support such a claim. In fact, hoplophobia is a cognitive disaster area that makes little sense. One of the obvious flaws of this crackpot theory is the assertion that gun violence victims have a generalized fear of guns. To the contrary, many are themselves gun owners and continue to endorse the right to keep and bear arms even after their traumatic episodes. There is nothing inconsistent (or insane) in advocating reasonable regulations for obtaining dangerous weapons and supporting legislation to keep such items out of the hands of those who will misuse them.

Which brings us to another glaring flaw. The authors attribute opposition to unfettered access to any type of weapon as evidence of hoplophobia. Were that the case it would mean that in excess of 80% of the American people are sufferers, because that’s how many support the expanded regulations currently being debated in congress. Obviously, 80% of the country has not been victimized by gun violence, so TheDC will have to come up with another theory to explain this discrepancy. And luckily, they have one handy:

“The large-scale support such a program sometimes finds, including within the media, implies a mass-hysteria or mass-hypnosis effect.”

See? We’re all hypnotized and/or hysterical. Never mind the fact that many of us own guns and happily concede that right to others in an environment that is responsible and filters out felons and other unstable individuals. And set aside the reasonable perspective that a certain measure of managed fear is appropriate when dealing with instruments that are so potentially injurious. Far too many devastating accidents have occurred when people failed to respect the inherent destructive force that guns possess.

In the end, it seems that the inventors of the phony phobia are themselves the ones who suffer from irrational fears. They consider any approach to public safety that addresses guns is a covert attempt to disarm them, enslave them, and confiscate their guns and other private property. They explicitly state in this article that hoplophobia “can compromise the U.S. Constitution and human freedom itself.” If that isn’t an expression of a hyper-phobic personality, then what is?

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12 thoughts on “Hoplophobia: Pro-Gun ‘Doctors’ Invent Psychological Disorder To Discredit Victim Activists

  1. This is nonsense. While there may be those who suffer from a gun phobia, much like there are those who fear balloons or clowns, it is outrageous to try to link those in favor of gun control to someone who might fear guns.

    Perhaps those who make this link suffer from “ApplesandOrangesphobia”, an irrational fear of not being able to link two disparate issues to fit their agenda. It’s real…look it up.

  2. These tools seem to think we’re stupid, and that if they create a new fake phobia, we can be shamed into silence about the rampant gun violence we have in this country. That a guy walked into the airport in Houston today and blew his head, off after shooting his AR-15 off in the facility, will never be mentioned by any of those attending the NRA convention there this week.

    • I don’t know if it’s they think were that stupid or it is that THEY ARE JUST THAT STUPID, to expect anybody to believe this shit! This line of reasoning is not coming from any kind of coherent thought.

    • Now I guess they will be requiring ticketing agents to be armed.
      Grand idea, arm everyone in an airport. That will teach those terrorists a lesson.

  3. Jesus Christ. There are no fucking bounds of reason are there?

  4. im pro gun, but i dont agree with these kind of arguments. it seems that a majority of people on both sides of this argument are speaking from their asses, and thinking with emotions instead of using their brains.

  5. I actually suffer from douchoplophobia… A morbid fear of douche-bags with guns.

  6. So by this logic, military widows or surviving families cannot speak out about their concerns,because they are too ‘traumatized’ and NOT because they have a unique and relevant perspective. This article is inane and rather terrifying.

  7. There must be some kind of mental disorder going on, because otherwise why would otherwise reasonable people be so adamant about wanting to violate the Constitution of the United States?

    Gun control is expressly forbidden. If you want that to change, then call for a constitutional amendment, rather than turning millions of law-abiding citizens into criminals with the stroke of a pen.

    And it wouldn’t do any harm to look into the mental health implications anyway – if you’re not crazy, you should have nothing to fear, right?

    • Hey Rich, Please do us all a favor and explain how the expectation of all gun purchases and not just gun store purchases makes criminals out of law abiding citizens…

      Also take a minute and explain why the phrase “well regulated” actually means “without any regulation at all”

      And then if you could go on a little bit more about this mental disorder afflicting so many.

      • “Well regulated” had another meaning, once upon a time, but that’s largely irrelevant, as it was the Militia that was to be “well regulated.”

        “The right of the people to keep and bear arms” was what “shall not be infringed.”

  8. take another hit off the crack pipe douche…

    It’s ONE sentence… Either it means something, or it doesn’t.

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