Whence Hoplophobia?

Why do people fear guns? Particularly, why do people seem to fear guns held in private hands?

Jeff Cooper coined the term hoplophobia to describe "people who are apparently haunted by a fixed and morbid aversion to our guns." He suggests those people suffer an organic psychiatric problem rather than an aversion based on ideology or experience. But if that were true, why are so many apparent hoplophobes completely unconcerned about guns in the hands of government? Why do handguns tend to draw the most concern, rather than hunting rifles or shotguns?

Let me suggest an alternative explanation: guns, particularly handguns, are very empowering to the individual. A small hunk of Smith & Wesson-forged steel gives a 110 pound woman a fighting chance against an enraged 250 pound muscular man--or even a representative of the State. Guns in private hands empower the individual at the expense of the collective will.

In an earlier post I referred to Jonah Goldberg's working definition of fascism as expressed in American Progressivism. Mr. Goldberg says that fascists/Progressives believe "[a]ny rival identity [beyond the State collective] is part of the 'problem' and therefore defined as the enemy." A 110 pound woman rejects the unitary will of the collective by arming herself. This empowered individual becomes a "rival entity" and thus an enemy of the collective, even if she never uses the weapon.

Jonah also writes that this worldview "assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people." Recall the history of the Gun Control Act of 1968: Robert F. Kennedy, the charismatic brother of slain President John F. Kennedy, was himself assassinated on June 5th of that year by a man using a handgun. Immediately the political class and country reacted:

With the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968, the groundswell of support for tough gun control laws reached unprecedented levels. [...] President Johnson, who had proposed gun control measures every year since becoming president, appeared on national television imploring Congress to pass a new and tougher gun control law that banned mail-order and out-of-state sales of long guns and ammunition. Reading a letter he sent to Congress, Johnson pleaded to Congress "in the name of sanity... in the name of safety and in the name of an aroused nation to give America the gun-control law it needs." --Answers.com: Gun Control Act of 1968

Many American Progressives believed that Robert F. Kennedy was the perfect "national leader attuned to the will of the people." Sirhan Sirhan, an individual armed with a handgun, deprived the "people" of their "leader". In response, the Progressives targeted the instrument that the individual used--because it was unthinkable that a mere individual could alone subvert the collective will.

Bottom line: hoplophobia is indeed irrational. Guns empower individuals, and empowered individuals are an unacceptable threat to the primacy of the collective will. Belief in the collective is taken on faith, and nothing is so threatening to a person than that which threatens his faith.

On the other hand, guns held by representatives of the State do not threaten faith in the collective--because the representative is part of the collective rather than a mere individual. Thus, these guns aren't really empowering an individual--instead, they help empower the collective.