When James Craig was a young man in the 1970s, he says law-abiding people wouldn’t dream of carrying guns. But then he left town to pursue a career in policing. In the years he was gone, Michigan liberalized its gun laws, making it easier for people to get concealed-carry permits.
When he came back to become Detroit’s police chief in 2013, he found a whole new reality.
« You would have thought, given the dynamic of people who carry weapons, that we were maybe in Texas, » he says. « But in fact, we were in Detroit, Michigan! »
Police chiefs usually don’t like the idea of citizens carrying concealed guns for self-defense, but Craig says he had to be realistic about the situation in his hometown.
« It was a well-known fact here in Detroit, » he says. « People didn’t have a lot of confidence that when they dialed 911, that the police were going to show up. In fact, we know they didn’t. »
So he endorsed a trend that was already well under way — the trend toward more people carrying legal guns.
According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, 54 percent of blacks now see gun ownership as a good thing, something more likely to protect than harm. That’s up from 29 percent just two years ago. In places like Detroit, more African-Americans are getting permits to carry concealed weapons.
Read more at: NPR