I have a Soligor. The only people I've ever had comment that it looked like a gun - well, only one person, who didn't confuse it just commented - don't know a damned thing about guns. Of course I grew up in rural east Tennessee where EVERYONE owns guns and is familiar with them. A gun is not used held very close to the eye like that (not unless you want to put your eye out as well as shoot.)
Haven't had that problem with the Pentax spot meter, although an officer confided that I almost got it when I walked up to the gate with an Uzi black Bogen tripod with pan/tilt head with big rubber levers and legs retracted. He said that out of the corner of his eye it looked exactly like some very specific sort of assault weapon. Probably didn't help that I walked up carrying it horizontally.
My camera bag is often stopped ( in the x-ray machine) while I'm heading to board a plane. When it happens, it's always to get a closer look at my Pentax DSM. They always tell me they know it's not a gun, but that it resembles certain types of tasers.
My spot meter is a Kenko KFM 2100 ( formally the Minolta Auto meter V1) that doesn't look like a gun and is much more versatile and cheaper than a Pentax Digital Spot meter http://www.shutterbug.com/content/k...ing-you-always-wanted-handheld-meter-and-more, I have currently have three digital meters and have had in the fifty odd years I've been a photographer many of the best meters made, but this is the best I've ever had.