Free gun initiative started in houston

[Julius Skrrvin]

Free gun initiative begins in Houston neighborhood | Fox News

Houston resident Cheryl Strain's inexperience with guns was apparent as she struggled to load shells into a 20-gauge shotgun.

Over the piercing blasts of gunfire in the shooting range, Strain's instructor, Dan Blackford, patiently directed her on how to use her thumb to shove a shell all the way inside the barrel and feel it click.

"Now we got a round in the chamber ready to go," Blackford said as he positioned her body on the right way to hold the shotgun. "Look down your sight, put that BB right in the middle of your target and press the trigger."

Strain's northwest Houston community of Oak Forest is the first neighborhood in the country being trained and equipped by the Armed Citizen Project, a Houston nonprofit that is giving away free shotguns to single women and residents of neighborhoods with high crime rates.

While many cities have tried gun buy-backs and other tactics in the ongoing national debate on gun control, the nonprofit and its supporters say gun giveaways to responsible owners are actually a better way to deter crime. The organization, which plans to offer training classes in Dallas, San Antonio, and Tucson, Ariz., in the next few weeks, is working to expand its giveaways to 15 cities by the end of the year, including Chicago and New York.

But others in Houston, while expressing support for Second Amendment rights, question whether more guns will result in more gun-related deaths rather than less crime.

Residents of Oak Forest say their neighborhood, made up of older one-story houses and a growing number of new townhomes, has experienced a recent rash of driveway robberies and home burglaries. On a recent Sunday afternoon, a group of 10 residents, including Strain, went through training at Shiloh Shooting, a northwest Houston gun range.

Kyle Coplen, the project's 29-year-old founder said his group expects to train at least 50 Oak Forest residents and put up signs saying the neighborhood is armed.

"When we have a crime wave, we don't just say let's just increase police and that's all we do. We do multiple things. I see this as one aspect of what we can do," said Coplen, who graduated from the University of Houston with a master's degree in public administration.

It costs the organization about $300 to arm and train an individual and about $20,000 for an entire neighborhood. All costs are paid through donations, said Coplen, though he declined to say how much his organization has raised so far.

While some residents in the neighborhood are supportive, several officials have mixed feelings about it.

Sandra Keller, Strain's neighbor, said she is participating in part because of the helplessness she felt after her furniture store was robbed a couple of years ago.

"If you don't have a gun, you're just a walking victim. You're just waiting for somebody to take advantage of you and your property," said Keller, 64, after practicing at the shooting range.

But Houston City Councilwoman Ellen Cohen, who represents Oak Forest, said, "I have serious concerns about more guns in homes."

Cohen said she supports Second Amendment rights and believes that such a responsibility should include proper training and background checks.

David Hemenway, a professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health who has written about firearms and health, said studies suggesting gun ownership deters crime have been refuted by many others that say the opposite.

"Mostly what guns seem to do is make situations more lethal because most crime has nothing to do with guns," he said. "When there is a gun in the mix, there is much more likely to be somebody dying or somebody incredibly hurt."

Proponents of increased gun ownership point to a variety of statistics to support their argument, including ones showing that some cities with strict gun control laws, like Chicago, still have high murder rates.

Blackford, the firearm instructor in the Oak Forest training, said the group is teaching residents not only how to handle and store a weapon but also when to use deadly force.

"The sad part is most people think if you're pro-gun, that you've got this gunslinger attitude, that you are walking around looking for a gun fight to get into and that is so far from the truth," said Blackford, a former Secret Service agent.

Harris County Precinct One Constable Alan Rosen, whose deputies patrol Oak Forest, said that while he believes the best deterrent to crime is effective neighborhood watch programs, he believes people should have the right to protect themselves.

"In terms of having a shotgun, after you've been properly trained on it, to have that in your home to protect your home, I'm for it," he said.

Strain, 46, a single mother who has never owned a gun, said she was nervous firing the shotgun but that more training will help. She also had her 12-year-old son Rory practice firing the shotgun so "if God forbid something happens, he could be prepared as well."

 

[Chris.B]

I see nothing wrong with this...

 

[Camammal]

fukking idiots

 

[Good Guy Guevara]

How about a free meals initiative for the homeless and hungry? Its baffling how ass backwards our priorities are in this country.

 

[Chris.B]

How about a free meals initiative for the homeless and hungry? Its baffling how ass backwards our priorities are in this country.

Some of the homeless do need help but most are self-inflicted problems by drug addicts who refuse to get treatment.

Guns are needed to deter criminals. I see nothing wrong with people protecting what they have worked for years to acquire.

 

[Mowgli]

Free gun initiative begins in Houston neighborhood | Fox News

The government isnt your daddy.

 

[acri1]

Texas.

 

[Chris.B]

The government isnt your daddy.

They have no clue. You better stay strapped. It will take at least 10 mins for police to show up if you are being harmed.

That may be too little to late. Sometimes the criminals deserve a taste of their own medicine

 

[Hiphoplives4eva]

i see flaming homos aka liberals are so shocked by this because by god, won't the government be there to protect me if i were in danger?



Well I guess someone has to be food for these criminals in these streets!

 

[Mowgli]

They have no clue. You better stay strapped. It will take at least 10 mins for police to show up if you are being harmed.

That may be too little to late. Sometimes the criminals deserve a taste of their own medicine

Bougie rich kids and shook queens thinking they have the answer to the worlds problems or straight terrified of the world they live in and need daddy to write some rules on paper for people to follow like kids. Its pathetic. No, we dont teach effective responsiblity, we just take things away.

If theres ever an event that causes the normal day to day to take a back seat and these are liberals sitting in their houses with their beautiful families stocked up on bottled water and supplies, wondering why people just cant be neighborly, theres 2 people outside with guns and , whos gonna go hungry and horny. Whos gonna go hungry, them, or you. Dont never give up them guns, you stupit?

 

[Mowgli]

Texas.

Has a lower murder rate then Michigan and a lower murder by gun death rate. Stop it, its disgusting.

 

[acri1]

Has a lower murder rate then Michigan and a lower murder by gun death rate. Stop it, its disgusting.

Not gonna bother arguing blatant post hoc fallacies.

Kinda surprised that a (Internet) tough-guy brazilian jiujitsu user such as yourself is so scared of the world that you can't function without your strap, but do you breh.

 

[A.J.Soprano]

Expect more school shootings

 

[Mowgli]

Not gonna bother arguing blatant post hoc fallacies.

Kinda surprised that a (Internet) tough-guy brazilian jiujitsu user such as yourself is so scared of the world that you can't function without your strap, but do you breh.

Of course you're not gonna argue. You have no legs to stand on. A state practically 2 and a half times the size of your state Michigan in size and population has less gun related deaths. Why is that? Seems like Texans teach more responsibility.

Martial arts have their uses and a gun, like martial arts is an extension of my fist.

 

[Chris.B]

Not gonna bother arguing blatant post hoc fallacies.

Kinda surprised that a (Internet) tough-guy brazilian jiujitsu user such as yourself is so scared of the world that you can't function without your strap, but do you breh.

These uber rich liberals who live in gated communities have really convinced you against responsible citizens keeping guns haven't they? :jada:

These people are for restricting guns because they don't have to deal with a criminal sneaking up on them in their million-dollar gated mansions.

Not everyone have that luxury and I'm offended when I hear these elitists talk to me about how to protect myself and family as a responsible citizen.