Detroit — 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.”

Here are the murder rates per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010:

Maine: 0.8

California: 3.4

That’s 4 times as many in the disarmed Golden State as in the lockin’-and-loadin’ Pine Tree State.

Why? Well, it could be because it’s too cold in Maine to go outside and rob somebody. Or maybe Stephen King scares all the criminals to death.

Or it might be that criminals never know what victim might be armed, and will shoot back.

Whereas in California, criminals know that the victims have been disarmed by Gov. Jerry Brown, Attorney General Kamala Harris, the state Legislature and county sheriffs.

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