Detroit is considered to be one of the most dangerous cities in the United States, if not the most dangerous. Decades of neglect and Democrat rule have turned the once great city into the largest municipal Chapter 9 bankruptcy in American history and a decaying wasteland with thousands of abandoned homes and buildings. Crime and violence have replaced prosperity to the point where a citizen of Detroit is statistically more likely to be killed than is an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Although the homicide rate dropped in 2013, Detroit had the same number of murders as New York City, which has 11 times the population of Detroit. The crime problem was definitely not lost on Police Chief James Craig, who took the job just last summer. He has made several changes to the department, including putting more emphasis on crime statistics to identify trouble spots and getting rid of a ‘virtual precinct’ concept that his predecessor started, which closed some neighborhood police stations at night. He is also being vocal about his recently changed position on armed citizens.
The Detroit News: “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.”
Craig’s statements Thursday echoed those he made Dec. 19 on “The Paul W. Smith Show” on WJR (760 AM), when he said: “There’s a number of CPL (concealed pistol license) holders running around the city of Detroit. I think it acts as a deterrent. Good Americans with CPLs translates into crime reduction. I learned that real quick in the state of Maine.”
It’s a shame that more people don’t have the experience of Chief Craig, who seems to clearly understand that armed citizens are less likely to be crime victims. One need look no further than Chicago to see that restrictive gun laws do nothing but get people killed. If restrictive gun laws really worked, Chicago would be among the safest cities in the country. Instead, it is Murder Capitol, USA.
I will never understand the ridiculous notion that if guns were to be banned that criminals would not have guns. When criminals, by definition, do not obey the law, only liberal logic would have one believe that criminals would obey gun laws. The Founders wrote the 2nd Amendment because they were pessimists about human nature. They mainly had the government in mind and securing the right of the people to remain free from tyranny. But I believe that pessimism about human nature also applies to fellow citizens. Especially in today’s America, when liberalism has created a class of people who care only about what they can take from their neighbor, be it by the ballot box or by the gun. At least the theft by ballot is legal, if not immoral.
When people are raised to believe the world owes them a living and that they should not have to work for it, there should be no surprise when some decide to take what they want, from whoever they want, and do bodily harm in the process. Yes, there would certainly be thieves and murderers no matter how much liberalism we have had in our history, but I firmly believe that the liberal mentality and entitlement government we have has created many more thieves and murderers by way of fostering irresponsible lives. To my mind, being armed to protect myself from tyranny includes being armed to protect myself from the product of liberal government. Chief Craig apparently agrees. After decades of liberal rule in Detroit and an astoundingly high crime rate, he clearly sees the need for citizens to be armed and protect themselves from criminals. It’s a concept that liberals just can’t seem to comprehend, but for some strange reason criminals prefer their victims to be unarmed.
The mentality of which you speak, the thinking that gun laws will deter criminals from using said guns in their acts of crime and violence, is a total abandoning of logic and reason. I have often wanted to sit down with any of the major players in the gun control crowd and ask them to explain exactly how making it harder for law abiding citizens to legally own firearms would do a single positive thing to deter criminals. I would enjoy their stammering as they tried to come up with a viable explanation of their logic.
Simply put, their logic does not compute.
I tend to think that those who favor gun control don’t really believe that taking guns from law abiding citizens would deter criminals. That’s just their excuse for taking guns. It’s really about control over the citizenry and disarming the people goes a long way toward that.