If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them
reports The Detroit News's
George Hunter the city's Police Chief as saying (thanks to
Clash Daily).
Urban police chiefs are typically in favor of gun control or reluctant to discuss the issue, but [James Craig] on Thursday was candid about how he’s changed his mind.
“When we look at the good community members who have concealed weapons permits, the likelihood they’ll shoot is based on a lack of confidence in this Police Department,” Craig said at a press conference at police headquarters, adding that he thinks more Detroit citizens feel safer, thanks in part to a 7 percent drop in violent crime in 2013.
Craig said he started believing that legal gun owners can deter crime when he became police chief in Portland, Maine, in 2009.
“Coming from California (Craig was on the Los Angeles police force for 28 years), where it takes an act of Congress to get a concealed weapon permit, I got to Maine, where they give out lots of CCWs (carrying concealed weapon permits), and I had a stack of CCW permits I was denying; that was my orientation.
“I changed my orientation real quick. Maine is one of the safest places in America. Clearly, suspects knew that good Americans were armed.”
… According to a March 2013 anonymous poll of 15,000 officers by the law
enforcement website policeone.com., almost 90 percent of the respondents
believed casualties would be decreased if armed citizens were present
during shooting incidents, while more than 80 percent supported arming
teachers who were trained with firearms.
