A non-profit group plans to hand out free shotguns to residents of Tucson, Arizona in an effort to show that more guns mean less crime.
The Houston, Texas-based Armed Citizens Project has raised about $12,000 or enough to fund about 36 weapons, Shaun McClusky, a Tucson realtor who launched the Tucson effort, told Reuters on Friday.
The group has begun tracking illegal activity in three crime-ridden neighborhoods and will continue to monitor the crime rate after guns are distributed.
“This is about public safety. This is about people protecting themselves,” said McClusky, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in the city’s last election.
Each single-shot weapon will come with a lock and training. Single-shot weapons were chosen because they are inexpensive and are unlikely to be stolen as criminals don’t want them, McClusky said.
Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik, a Democrat who has advocated for stricter gun controls in Tucson does not agree with the underlying premise of the giveaway program.
“To suggest that giving guns to people in high-crime neighborhoods will make them safer is ridiculous. I think it’s dangerous,” Kozachik said.
He called the program a “solution seeking a problem,” and predicted city residents will reject the program as it becomes more widely publicized…
Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how things turn out…