Arm the Homeless Date Friday, April 19, 2024 - 06:49 PM PST Topic News Finally someone has an interesting solution to the problem of homelessness in the US. By giving them guns this charity group in Phoenix, AZ is doing more for the disadvantaged than the welfare system. Apparently this idea has been around for quite a few years, and just keeps re-surfacing. The responses have been mixed, but I personally think it's a great idea. Most of the comments I've read in online forums have been negative but apparently enough people are supporting them with donations that they are still able to give out guns. One man writes: This article is insane! I am one who truly believes that it is our constitutional right to bare [sic] arms. I also believe that you should earn the right to bare those arms by hard work and diligent patriotism to the mother land, not by sucking of the nipple of America and panhandling your way through life. Life is precious and those of us who WORK hard and pay our TAXES are the Americans that have earned the right to bare arms. Another had this to say: Has it occurred to you fucking brainless morons that there has been a rash of killings in Phoenix that started about the same time you idiots handed out these guns to the homeless? SHITHEADS! INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE DYING BECAUSE OF YOU! Here is a transcript of a conversation between the head of the organization and a reporter from 60 minutes (for those of you who are too lazy to go read the link above). Klein [answering]: CBS News. Whippit: Janet Klein? Klein: Yes. Whippit: Pete Whippit with Arm the Homeless in Phoenix. K: Oh. Hi. Yeah, I was looking through some newspapers here, and I saw the New Times story. Um . . . you're just an Arizona organization? W: That's correct. As you may have seen on our tee shirts, it said "Phoenix Chapter." We are trying to get--we have some like-minded individuals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and possibly in Portland, where we've sent them some materials on how we organized our first giveaway, and, uh, some of the representatives from the future Los Angeles chapter of Arm the Homeless will be attending our action today outside the America West Arena. But to answer your question, yes, the only active chapter right now is in Phoenix. K: Now, did you start this? W: I'm the founder of Arm the Homeless, yes. K: And what exactly inspired you to do this? W: Well, I'm a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, and I wanted to make a, uh, statement to really let people know that the Second Amendment is not just for rich people in this country. You know? Also, the homeless people, they live in the most dangerous areas of America, and they need sidearms and shotguns the most. They have to be able to protect themselves, and they have no means to do it. I'm sure you've read the news accounts of skinheads and street punks setting these people on fire, and it's a travesty, and we wanted to right it, and at the same time make a strong statement in support of the U.S. Constitution. K: How do you decide who gets them, who you give them to? W: Well, this was not in the New Times article, and it should have been. We do not simply give guns to every homeless person who shows up. There's a screening process. I mean, none of us are psychiatrists, but if you talk to homeless people on the street, which I have, you can see which ones are more or less sane and which ones are completely off their rocker. It's not that hard. And we did not give guns to people who were apparently crazy. Does that answer your question? K: Uhhh. Well, yeah. But, so, just by talking to them you would decide-- W: We would just talk to them and, you know, we would explain to them once how to load the gun, and if they were not able to do it the first time, we gave them one more chance, and if they failed to properly load their weapon three times, then we refused them and told them to come back at the next giveaway. K: Uh-huh. And, do you have any requirements like age, or anything like that? W: Well, we certainly didn't give any guns to children. But we did give preference to mothers with children. K: Did you teach them how to use it? W: The children? K: No, the mothers. W: Yeah, absolutely. We taught every gun recipient how to load, clean, dismantle, reassemble, and fire their weapon of choice. K: And how long do you take teaching them? W: Uh, it depends on the weapon. I mean, a weapon like the Mac-10 or the Tec-9, that's at least an hour's worth of instruction. Whereas a gun like the .22 Derringer, obviously that only takes a few minutes . . . K: How many did you give away? W: How many guns? K: Uh-huh. W: Almost 80. K: To 80 people? W: Correct. Only one gun per recipient. K: Okay. And so you're giving some away tonight before a game? W: Yeah, right before the Suns versus Lakers basketball game, outside the America West Arena. K: How many guns will you take there to give away? W: It's not going to be as extensive tonight, simply because it's, uh, a more public space. This is more of a demonstration, more of a, uh, symbolic action. We're only going to give away about 25 firearms tonight. K: When will the next giveaway be? W: There's a gun show here this weekend called Crossroads of the West, and it's the largest gun show in America, and we plan to make a mass purchase there. But, we're not assured we'll be able to obtain enough quality firearms there for a full giveaway. We may have to wait for another gun show to come around . . . K: Okay. I may be interested in--let me ask you this first: Is there a tax deduction for donating the guns? W: We have applied for--that was erroneously reported in the article. We have not received tax-exempt status. But we hope to, although for obvious reasons the government may, uh, try to shut us down in that respect. But that will not stop us, I assure you of that! K: Mmm-hmm. W: So far we have not received any donated firearms except from actual members of ATH, although since the New Times article we have received quite a few calls from people offering to donate used guns. K: Oh, really? From the Arizona area? W: Yeah. Ma'am, people here have a lot of guns. I mean, there are a lot of guns in Arizona. . . . But the thing is, with each individual gun, we have to check it out. We have to make sure that it works, we have to test fire it, clean it, all that. It's a time-consuming process . . . K: Okay. Um--if I would be interested in doing a story, would you be willing to work with me? W: Absolutely. K: And only me? W: Sure. K: I mean just me, right? Okay? W: No other TV media, is what you're saying? K: Right, uh-huh. W: What about local stations, because I suspect some of them may show up at our action today, wanting to do interviews. K: Well, the thing is that, uh, I mean, obviously if they show up today there's nothing you can do about that, but, uh, some of the news magazines like Dateline for instance, will use their local reporters to get a story. W: What, what about if I don't speak to them, but what about if Honey Hawk, our minister of information, speaks to them, but you will have the only interview with Pete Whippit, founder of Arm the Homeless? K: Okay. Well, if she speaks with them, I guess what I'm asking is to keep it minimal. No in-depth stuff. W: Okay . . . K: And Pete, you're 33? W: That's correct. K: And you're a Marine Recon combat veteran? W: That's correct. K: What does that mean, exactly? W: Just what it says. . . . There's been a lot of doubts cast on whether I was actually in the military, and-- K: No, no. I just don't know what it means. I'm just trying to figure out what it means, "Marine Recon." You know. I mean, I've done stories on the Marines and so forth before, but-- W: A lot of what I did for the Marines is classified. I can't discuss it at length. But basically it involved reconnaissance in hostile territory. K: Okay. Are you from Arizona? W: No. I'm from Alaska originally. Um, I spent some time here in my youth, and once I came out of Africa, my girlfriend moved here, and I followed her. K: Honey Hawk, what's his-- W: That's a she. Honey's our minister of information. K: And what does she--why do you call her "minister of information"? W: Well, basically she handles our PR. K: Uh-huh. I'm just curious why "minister of information." It sounds like a country. W: Hmmm. Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe we should change that. K: No, no. I'm just curious. I'm not telling you to change it. Now, how did she get involved in this? W: Well, I met her at a gun show. That's how I handled all my recruiting. Basically, I put up a booth with a sign that said "Don't you think homeless people need weapons too?" and people stopped to talk to me, and a substantial number agreed with my philosophy, and that's how I got Honey and most of the other founding members. K: How many members are there? W: Right now we have 27 active members in ATH Phoenix. K: And what do active members do? W: Well, they help us acquire firearms. . . . They also handle test firing of donated weapons. If someone wants to donate a weapon, they'll go to their house and . . . accept the weapon and issue a certificate of donation. . . . They were also on-site at the giveaway to conduct training courses. K: Now, the local government hasn't given you a hard time about this? W: No. Not so far. . . . We carefully researched it, and what we're doing is perfectly legal under Arizona gun laws. It's just one private individual giving a gun to another. So there's no problem there. K: Is the NRA supportive of you? W: We have not requested nor received an official statement from the NRA. K: I'm just curious if you're affiliated with any other kinds of organizations. W: Not directly. . . . I can say this much: We have received $10,000 in contributions from, uh, Second Amendment rights supporters; now some of them may or may not be officials in other Second Amendment groups. I really can't go into that. K: Okay, um, all right, now . . . you probably won't hear from me again until Monday. Now, 602-440-1136, is the best way to get ahold of you? W: Yes it is. K: You answer that fairly frequently? W: We monitor that line 24-7. K: Okay, Pete, now you have my number? W: Yes I do. Now, what exactly do you do for CBS News? K: I'm a producer for 60 Minutes II. A segment producer. Okay? W: Yeah. K: Okay, Pete. Thank you very much. W: Thank you, Janet. K: Bye-bye. This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=502