Detroit's top cop opened up about his views on the issue of gun ownership during a press conference last week.
Police Chief James Craig told reporters that if more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them, according to The Detroit News.
"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.
Craig, who took over the department last year, said that he began believing that legal gun owner can help deter crime when he was appointed as the chief of the police department in Portland, Maine in 2009.
After previously spending 28 years with the LAPD, he said the gun culture in Maine helped alter his views. He said that there, concealed weapon permits were regularly given out, where in Los Angeles, he was routinely denying them.
"I changed my orientation real quick," he said. "Maine is one of the safest places in America. Clearly, suspects knew that good Americans were armed."
While Craig said that more responsible gun owners would likely lower crime, in the past he has supported a ban on assault weapons, regulating high-capacity magazines, tighter restrictions on Internet ammunition sales and more stringent background checks for people who sell firearms at gun shows.
