Contact: Kyle Coplen

Executive Director Armed Citizen Project Kyle@armedcitizenproject.org www.armedcitizenproject.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Houston - April 25, 2013 - The Armed Citizen Project is dedicated to empowering citizens and deterring crime by providing free training and defensive pump-action shotguns to residents of mid-high crime neighborhoods. They have been using existing crime data, and have been working with citizens in the community to determine the neighborhoods that they will be training and arming. On Sunday, May 5 , they will begin to train and arm their first neighborhood in Houston, and will soon begin arming residents in other U.S cities. The Armed Citizen Project will be in at least 15 cities by the end of the year, and has the goal of providing training and weapons to over 1,000 households in their inaugural year. They have chosen a neighborhood in Northwest Houston as their first neighborhood to arm. The neighborhood lies within the 77092 zip code, near 610/290/T.C. Jester Park. The rise in crime over the last several years has negatively impacted the lives of the residents, and home values in the area. The area was recommended by citizens and members of law enforcement, and the data validates that this area would benefit from the program. In his final semester of the Masters of Public Administration program at the University of Houston, Kyle has a love of policy analysis, and has always been interested in the relationship between how criminals perceive levels of risk and crime rates. It is our hypothesis that criminals have no intention of dying in your hallway, and we believe that society should use that fear to deter crime. The Armed Citizen Project is dedicated to facilitating the arming of law abiding citizens, and analyzing the relationship between increased firearm availability and crime rates. They are choosing mid-high crime neighborhoods in cities across America, and offering defensive weapons to homeowners that can pass a background check and will participate in safety, legal, and tactical training. The data collected will be used in the completion of a policy study that will measure the deterrent effects of firearms on crime. While a multi-year/multi-city will be conducted, the organization is first and foremost a charitable nonprofit, motivated by the desire to help fellow citizens. They have been training and arming single women/mothers and the elderly, and are now ready to arm entire neighborhoods. Once an appropriate number of homeowners are armed, they intend to place signs in the neighborhood warning criminals of the increased risk that exists to those that illegally enter a home. Homeowners that choose not to participate in the program may potentially benefit, as the criminal will not know which homes are armed. By tracking and analyzing
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the crime data, ACP hopes to determine if a correlation or causal link exists between the increased risk of deadly force and the reduction of home invasion crimes.

The Armed Citizen Project is funded through private donations made through their website, www.armedcitizenproject.org, and will also accept contributions of firearms.
We are empowering citizens and deterring crime, one free shotgun at a time.

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