You get a shotgun!

The IDS Editorial Board and multiple columnists have dedicated their space on this page to gun rights and gun control.

While none of us are qualified to suggest or enact real solutions to the issue of gun violence, we’ve all asked for legislators and those with the answers to bring attention to this problem.

Unfortunately, somebody handing out free shotguns to citizens in violent Indianapolis neighborhoods is not the resolution we were hoping for.

Kyle Coplen — a Rochester, Ind., native and Ball State University graduate — has developed a thesis that having firearms in high-violence areas can prevent crime.

He plans to test this theory in Houston before he rolls out his plan in Indianapolis.

Coplen plans to distribute free pump-action shotguns to citizens who pass a background check and complete tactical training provided by Coplen’s group, the Armed Citizen’s Project.

We applaud the fact that somebody wants to do something about violence in our state’s capital.

We’re terrified that Coplen wants to basically pull an Oprah and give deadly firearms to anyone who jumps through a few minor hoops.

Last year, there were 275 homicides in Indiana. Nearly 75 percent of those homicides involved a firearm.

It’s no surprise that having a gun in a household increases the danger of death or injury.

From 2003 to 2007, nearly 700 people were unintentionally killed by a firearm.

Two-thirds of the accidental gun deaths occur in the home, and half of those victims were younger than 25.

Having a gun under your roof significantly increases the chances of injury and death, whether or not your intention of owning a gun is to protect your family.

This is why American children between ages 5 and 14 are 11 times more likely to be accidentally killed by a gun than correspondingly aged children in other developed countries.

Coplen argues that the mere idea of a gun in the home will make criminals think twice before breaking and entering or committing any array of crimes.

This idea of criminals playing Russian roulette with their crimes sounds like a noble argument, but we’re talking about the possibility of a gun versus a physical firearm in a home where it poses more of a threat to a home’s inhabitants than to criminals.

Besides, we’d rather deal with a B&E than a dead criminal in our homes — but that’s just us.

We’re happy to see the gun control debate continue and to have people offer their ideas as to how we can prevent crime in Indiana.

Arbitrarily arming Hoosiers with free shotguns is not the solution we need.

­— opinion@idsnews.com
Follow the Opinion Desk on Twitter @ids_opinion.