A controversial home-defense project will be hitting the streets of Houston soon.
The effort, called the Armed Citizen Project, seeks to give shotguns to residents of moderate and high-crime neighborhoods. University of Houston graduate student Kyle Coplen came up with the idea, and he hopes that because he’s publicizing it, criminals will be scared off from targeting the neighborhoods where shotguns have been distributed.
“It’s our hypothesis that criminals do not want to die in your hallway,” Coplen said. “We think that society should use that fear to deter crime.”
The project’s gun of choice will be a single-shot shotgun.
“They’re pretty inexpensive, easy to learn how to use and they make good home defense weapons,” Coplen said.
The program recently sent representatives to over 400 homes in the Houston area, offering them the opportunity to acquire one of the shotguns and receive firearm training. Coplen says the project hopes to provide around 100 of the residents with a shotgun in the near future.
