Hoplophobia:
The Four Types of Gun Phobia

Common phobic responses including hoplophobia (a term Marine Col. Jeff Cooper said he first coined in1966), the morbid, irrational fear of weapons, firearms, guns, knives, military, police, legally armed law-abiding citizens, etc., are usually viewed as learned behavioral responses. Bad learning. Not useful. In extreme cases, a phobic response can seriously get in the way of a person's life! In much milder forms, people can choose to just live with it. For example, a fear of flying could be seriously problematic, depending on one’s occupation or lifestyle. Fear of snakes and alligators, not so much, unless you live in Florida. But then again, you should have some fear of alligators. In other words, it all depends on who, what, where, your personal life, and the degree of the bad learning. Other causes exist too.

The bad news is: when irrational thoughts and seriously limiting beliefs get well-conditioned and reinforced regardless of causation, they will absolutely seem to get increasingly real and powerful to even otherwise moderately functional people. That's the trap. It's like quicksand. And some people may have much greater loss of functionality, depending on many factors. It can become enormously limiting by changing people’s thinking, their behaviors, their lives in many ways, always for the worse! It can even affect others. For example, a Second Amendment advocate would have a next to impossible time of it if married to a hoplophobe. Similarly, a person with hoplophobia should never be voted into a position where they can either set firearm policy laws or enforce them. That would be certain, absolute disaster!

The good news is: if and when a great flood of more useful, wiser dominant thoughts are backed up with more powerful motivations, emotions, new life-saving needs and skills, learnings and unconscious resources, with high desire and genuine willingness, old learnings can indeed get extinguished and replaced. Thus "change" can become much more irresistible than that older, bad learning. .....