By Debbie Schlussel

Detroit Police Chief James Craig, originally a gun control supporter, is now calling for more Detroit citizens to be armed. Moreover, he’s finally admitting that gun ownership deters crime and is in favor of more Detroiters obtaining Michigan Concealed Pistol Licenses. Right on!

I was not originally a fan of Motown’s relatively new Police Chief, Craig, especially after he let a carjacker go (because the Chief is not actually a police officer and could only make a citizen’s arrest!). But, now, I’m rethinking my view about him. He’s finally turned the corner on our Second Amendment rights. Maybe he’ll turn other corners and turn things around in the City. Detroit’s homicide numbers went down last year compared to the previous year, though he cannot take credit for that, as he’s only been in office a few months. But, still, I’m looking forward to good things from Chief Craig. He’s bucked the trend of urban police chiefs who mostly support taking citizens’ guns away. Maybe he’ll buck other similarly moronic conventional inner city law enforcement wisdom.

If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday. Urban police chiefs are typically in favor of gun control or reluctant to discuss the issue, but Craig on Thursday was candid about how he’s changed his mind.

“When we look at the good community members who have concealed weapons permits, the likelihood they’ll shoot is based on a lack of confidence in this Police Department,” Craig said at a press conference at police headquarters, adding that he thinks more Detroit citizens feel safer, thanks in part to a 7 percent drop in violent crime in 2013. Craig said he started believing that legal gun owners can deter crime when he became police chief in Portland, Maine, in 2009.

“Coming from California (Craig was on the Los Angeles police force for 28 years), where it takes an act of Congress to get a concealed weapon permit, I got to Maine, where they give out lots of CCWs (carrying concealed weapon permits), and I had a stack of CCW permits I was denying; that was my orientation. I changed my orientation real quick. Maine is one of the safest places in America. Clearly, suspects knew that good Americans were armed.”

I’m not sure why he compares Maine to Detroit. They couldn’t be more different (except for being mindless libs who voted in droves for Obama). Maine has low crime for other reasons. But Craig has the right idea. He also said this in a radio interview:

“There’s a number of CPL (concealed pistol license) holders running around the city of Detroit. I think it acts as a deterrent. Good Americans with CPLs translates into crime reduction. I learned that real quick in the state of Maine.”

And other cops get it, too.

According to a March 2013 anonymous poll of 15,000 officers by the law enforcement website policeone.com., almost 90 percent of the respondents believed casualties would be decreased if armed citizens were present during shooting incidents, while more than 80 percent supported arming teachers who were trained with firearms.

Willie White, a Black Detroiter, also gets it.

77-year-old Willie White, . . . in March 2012, fatally shot a man who’d broken into his northwest Detroit home. Prior to the incident, White’s home had been broken into several times. The break-ins stopped after he killed the 18-year-old intruder, he said. “I think these criminals would definitely think twice if they knew more citizens were armed,” White said. “I know it stopped them from breaking into my place.”

Spot on. I’m glad Black America is finally waking up to the lie that is gun control. Now, if only the President they elected in droves would get it.

Or, at the very least, if only Black America would get it that the President they elected–while he’s well-guarded inside the White House and everywhere else–wants to take away their only mode of self-preservation in inner cities and urban settings like Detroit.

Three cheers, James Craig.

I’ve said it on this site many times before: my Holocaust survivor grandfather, of Blessed Memory, always carried a gun and illegally concealed and carried because, in those days, it was tough to get a concealed weapons permit in Michigan. His guns saved his life many times in his office near Detroit’s borders, and he always lamented that Jews weren’t allowed to own guns in Nazi Europe and defend themselves.

Let’s hope the days of Detroit leaders, like late corrupt Mayor Coleman Young, calling for gun control (while they own plenty of guns themselves–Young had a large gun collection) are over.

As I always say, the only gun control I believe in for law-abiding Americans is a steady aim.