Gun Initiative Begins in Houston, Targets Single Women and Residents in High-Crime Areas
The Armed Citizen Project began equipping citizens in the Oak Forest, Texas, neighborhood as part of an initiative to protect single women and those living in high-crime areas. The program created quite a stir for some of the residents and legislators in the area.
"When we have a crime wave, we don't just say let's just increase police and that's all we do," Kyle Coplen, the Armed Citizen Project's founder, told the Associated Press. "We do multiple things. I see this as one aspect of what we can do."
It currently costs the ACP $300 to equip and train an individual, but all costs are taken care of through donations, though Coplen refused to say who donated to the organization or how much money they have. However, he did tell the press that he has plans to make the program a nation-wide program
"New York and Chicago are on our high-priority list," Coplen told Kiss FM. "We are going to be there by the end of the year," he promised.
"I have serious concerns about more guns in homes," Houston City Councilwoman Ellen Cohen told the Denver Post. She added that she believes in the Second Amendment, but that people should have background checks and proper training before receiving a firearm.
"Mostly, what guns seem to do is make situations more lethal because most crime has nothing to do with guns," David Hemenway, professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health, told USA Today. "When there is a gun in the mix, there is much more likely to be somebody dying or somebody incredibly hurt."
That won't stop Coplen from trying to arm those who may need arming, he said.
"The folks that criticize us, I don't really pay attention to them. We are training folks, doing background checks, holding training. The people against us are against firearms ownership of any kind, the extreme fringe of the anti-gun movement," he told Kiss FM.
