All the usual suspects are having a hissy fit because a company called Ideal Conceal has created a two-shot derringer that looks an awful lot like a smart phone.

Oh noes!!!

A concealed carry gun is coming out this year that can be folded into a box resembling a smartphone … a feature that makes cops nervous.

Ideal Conceal, a Minnesota startup, is developing a two-shot pistol that folds into a palm-sized square. It can be slipped into a back pocket or displayed openly in a coffee shop with no one the wiser.

“Ingeniously designed to resemble a smartphone, yet with one click of the safety it opens and is ready to fire,” says the company website. “Smartphones are everywhere, so your new pistol will easily blend in with today’s environment. In its locked position it will be virtually undetectable because it hides in plain sight.”

The company said the gun will cost $395 when it becomes available mid-2016. Developer Kirk Kjellberg said he’s already received 2,500 emails from people who want to buy one.

Bearing Arms contacted developer Kjellberg, who says that the company will having a firing prototype this summer… meaning that they don’t yet have an operable firearm, just a concept for one.

The gun itself isn’t something I’d carry—a sightless, lightweight, two-shot derringer is not my cup of tea—but it is something for those who can’t or won’t carry “real guns” for their self-defense for a multitude of reasons.

The media, of course, are quick to assert that this will be a weapon for assassins and other generally bad people, while remaining blissfully ignorant of the similarly non-gun-like Taurus Curve, which is semi-automatic and has a 7-shot (6+1) capacity.

If the reliably anti-gun mainstream media had what we like to call “a clue,” they’d be far more worried about why the market for the Ideal Conceal smart phone gun and Taurus Curve even exist.

So what is the Curve audience?

While I don’t know the specific details, I suspect that the Taurus Curve is designed for young urban adults who feel the need to own a handgun as a talisman against “evil,” but who don’t intend to become shooters.

They’ll likely talk to friends or so a little basic internet research about features before purchasing, but they’ll mostly be driven by intangibles, like the wow factor, whether they think it looks cool, and of course, marketing copy designed for a consumer-driven world.

The Taurus Curve is a gun designed to look like a fashion accessory and not a firearm, and is purposefully as chic and unoffensive as an iPhone.

If CNN and the bed-wetting hipsters writing in the tech blogs really want to have something to be frightened about regarding these firearms, it should be the fact that these handguns of questionable practical defensive use are “gateway guns.” While the purchasers of these firearms might buy these guns and these guns alone, my experience has been that when people buy a marginal handgun and discover that it doesn’t provide exactly what they need (or what they think they need), they set it aside and begin down a path towards what some of my friends in the industry call “clue.”

They start reading about other firearms, and then they try them out at the range or with friends. They then buy more guns, start taking classes, and get serious about personal defense. Almost invariably, they begin involving even more friends and family members into what has developed into a passion, and the ethos of armed self-defense and personal responsibility spreads.

I probably won’t spend my money on an Ideal Conceal pistol, but I celebrate their entrance into the market. It’s a good thing for good people, and a bad thing for those human predators who are finding their predatory lifestyle to be an increasing dangerous pursuit.