The Armed Citizen Project has expanded its Redistribution of Firepower Program to Texas and Florida, the group announced this week.
The Redistribution of Firepower Program, put simply, takes donations of unused firearms and gives the guns, as well as training, to background-checked, high-vulnerability Americans such as single women and the urban poor.
“We’ve combined Joe Biden’s love of shotguns with Obama’s love of redistribution,” Armed Citizen Project Executive Director Kyle Coplen told The Daily Caller. “At some point, you’ve earned too many guns.”
And when you’ve acquired too many firearms to use, the project buys them back from you and spreads the wealth of guns around so that a higher percentage of households are armed. “We see this as a buyback we can believe in, one that removes old and unused firearms from homes of existing gun owners, and uses them to create new responsible gun owners in our own communities.”
If the donor has someone specific in mind to receive the gun and training they will receive an “Empowerment Scholarship” to be redeemed by a loved one. According to Coplen, “We all know a single mom or widow, or retiree who would benefit from being trained and armed with a free pump-action shotgun…The Armed Citizen Project is fighting the liberal war on women… one free shotgun at a time.”
Coplen says they have already helped an entire neighborhood become armed to reduce violent crime.
Aug. 10 marks the group’s inaugural National Empowerment Day. In anticipation, donors will “receive a number of gifts, including one raffle ticket to win a custom painted AR-15 with custom made, 3-D printed 30-round magazine.”
Thought they previously operated only in Tucson, Arizona, the project is now expanding to Texas and Florida, but Coplen says they have even larger goals: “In less than six months, we’re in 15 cities. Our 5-year-goal is to be in every mid to major U.S. city.”
Coplen also says he wants to help arm and train a previously reported-on group of grandma’s who organized a “Glock block” in their Oregon neighborhood.
Additionally, he sees Kennesaw, Georgia, which has experienced an extremely low crime and murder rate following a law mandating gun ownership, as a great example of the effects an armed populace has in deterring crime.
The Armed Citizen Project hopes to arm and train 500 people nationally, including 100 citizens of Houston, on National Empowerment Day.