The Proper Response to Gun Violence

The Armed Citizen Project

WHO ARE WE?

The Armed Citizen Project is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to training and arming residents in mid-high crime areas with defensive shotguns, for free!  In training and arming law-abiding residents, we are saturating neighborhoods with defensive weapons, and measuring the effect that a heavily armed society has on crime rates.

Our founder, Kyle Coplen, is a policy analyst in his final semester of the Masters of Public Administration program with the University of Houston.  Tired of the blatant manipulation and politicization of statistics when it comes to the relationship between firearms and safety, Kyle decided to conduct a multi-year, multi-city study that may be able to establish the definitive link that the gun debate is sorely lacking.

We are an organization that is not simply content to hold the line on guns.  If the fight does not come to us, we will go to it.  We are also training and arming single women in high crime areas, competing against gun buybacks, calling out anti-gun politicians as being pro-crime, and fighting the anti-gun establishment in general.   We are pissing off all of the right (left) people, having a blast doing it.  We hope that you join our fight today.

Free Gun Program Plans To Expand To North Texas

Reporting Sharrie Williams

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Calvin Carter lives in South Dallas’ Sunny Acres neighborhood, an area that has worked hard to keep crime out but it has been a struggle.
Last July Dallas Police suited up in riot gear and tried to control an angry mob right behind Carter’s home.
Officers were called to the area for what turned out to be a setup between rivalry gangs over drug turf.
It ended with one man being fatally shot by a Dallas officer.
But a new program is getting Carter’s attention.
The Armed Citizen Project is raising money to give free guns to residents living in high-crime areas and to single women — so they can defend themselves against criminals.
Based in Houston– the group now wants to expand to Dallas.
“It sounds good but you have to be careful,” said Carter.
“It’s good to be able to have weapons in case something happens to you or your family when you’re not there, that weapon could save them.”
In order to get a free gun you have to pass a background check and complete a safety training course.
You also have to have lived at your current address for at least a year.


The group’s gun of choice is a single shot shotgun.
Gun expert Tom Mannewitz with Target Masters in Garland told CBS11′s Sharrie Williams that the group may have chosen the single-shot shotgun because its one of the least expensive weapons to purchase.
But Mannewitz says it’s also the most effective weapon protecting you and your home.
“With a handgun the projectile is very slender so it’s easier to miss your target,” explained Mannewitz. ” With a shotgun, even at distances of 12 feet which is average distance across the room, you have a pattern of 6 inches in diameter so even if you’re off, you’re still likely to have something in the target.”
The free gun program is controversial — and drawing criticism.
“That appalls me completely,” said Lynne Weber. “I’m against having guns in our society. I want gun control. I think doing that would not empower women but endanger them and everyone around them.”
Gun sales have spiked nationwide in the past months as the debate over gun control has been front center after shootings in Newtown, Connecticut killed 20 children and seven adults.
But only time will tell if this free gun program will resonate with residents living in North Texas.