"I am comfortable with guns," he writes. "I grew up shooting targets for sport and took part in marksmanship competitions. I have also voted for Democrats in most elections, strongly support gun control and am against the death penalty. I do not think the drafters of the second amendment envisioned concealed semiautomatic weapons and hollow-point bullets in everyone's hands."
What Levitin has done is made me reconsider the nature of hoplophobia. I had presumed that it was more or less based on unfamiliarity with guns, possibly combined with a leftist pseudo-pacifism and a vague contempt for conservatives. But in Levitin's case it seems to go deeper. The guy is truly morbidly afraid of guns- even his own. He writes
The problem with having a gun is that you can be tempted to use it. Guns also make committing acts of violence seem easier and less personal; if you’re not looking someone in the eye, it may not seem as real when you pull the trigger. To control that risk requires mental and emotional preparation, as well as rigorous training. As a reluctant gun owner, I continue to be baffled by the lack of regulation on gun ownership. Shouldn’t it be at least as difficult to get a gun license as a driver’s license—or better still, as difficult as it is to get a private pilot’s license? Gun owners should have to prove their competency and their ability to exercise good judgment, just as other licenses require.
and-
When someone has a firearm, a single moment of impaired judgment can have devastating consequences. Just this week, a driver raced through a stop sign at a crosswalk in my neighborhood at 50 miles per hour, almost knocking me and my dog over. I didn’t have my gun, but for a moment I wanted to shoot at his tires.
Yet even after the multiple incidents in which he was threatened enough to call the police to his home (he lives in California), he still speaks of owning a gun as a bitter necessity, something our eevil society forced him to. Frankly, I think this guy has issues. Some people can't drink responsibly, or avoid drugs, or not gamble beyond their means; I'm now starting to wonder if some people simply are too haunted by the lethal potential of firearms to ever be comfortable with them, or to understand that most gun owners aren't as obsessed with guns as they are. I'm wondering if hoplophobia isn't just an attitude and really is more of a mental condition.