Really?

The late Jeff Cooper coined the term “hopolophobe” to denote a person with an obsessive fear of weapons. They are the frantic metrosexuals and soccer moms who decry gun violence as being related to proliferation of guns rather than proliferation of criminals. They somehow believe that taking the means of defense away from rational, honest, law-abiding people will somehow purge society of the asocial Neanderthals who prey upon the helpless. If we simply outlaw guns as they try in Washington DC, Chicago, New York City, or San Francisco there will be much less crime. It doesn’t seem to be working very well in those cities.

The liberalization of gun control policies has demonstrably reduced crime in the 38 states that now have “shall issue” legislation for concealed carry permits. I’ve got to guess that liberals might feel outraged that I’ve just used that term with regard to the issue, but that’s what it means.

Now, take a look at this item that surfaced today in places like San Francisco and Dallas:

The Sky is Falling

This is like someone suddenly noticing that the sun shows up regularly each morning. They suddenly realized that inside the security zone, there are people without weapon and everywhere else there are people with weapons. That is cosmic deduction, Sherlock!

The implication is clear. The hopolophobes are rushing the ramparts and will soon demand that they be protected outside the security zones from all of those airport shootings we’ve been having at places like SFO and DFW. Oh, we haven’t had any shootings? Well, we might, so we better do something! Like what?

What would you do? Would you expand the security perimeter? Wouldn’t that compound the problem of supervising the space? A bigger area fenced, means a lot more fence to be penetrable and a lot more bodies required to patrol it.

How about a secondary security area? Would that mean only some weapons would be screened out? So, you couldn’t take a gun but you could take a knife, a shoe-bomb and your large sized bottle of shampoo and lip gloss? I could get stabbed, blow-dried and blown-up but not shot then?

What is there about the concept of concealed carry that these people don’t understand? If I know that I can’t carry through security at the airport and into the boarding area, I leave my gun at home. If I’m only going to drop off or pick up someone without planning on entering the secure zone how will anyone know I’m armed? If I’m on level five of the parking facility at 2:45 AM and some street punk decides he likes my Rolex and his girl would be impressed with my car, why should I be disarmed?

If the intent of the hopolophobes is simply to declare the entire airport terminal building and surrounding parking areas as a “gun-free zone” by erecting prominent signage declaring it so, then I think they should get on with it whenever they feel like. That should certainly deal with the problem perfectly and with minimal inconvenience. Of course, I will continue to do what I’ve been doing and the punk on level five will have to decide whether he feels lucky or not… “Well, punk, do ya?”