Senate candidate wants to arm the homeless

(WJBK) - US Senate hopeful Brian Ellison is aiming to put shotguns in the hands of the homeless.

He plans to raise $10,000 to provide 20 homeless people with weapons as well as training. His reasoning?

"They're significantly more likely to be victims of a crime," he said. "They don't have the means to protect themselves. If you wanted to own a gun you could, I certainly do, but they don't have the means to do that so they're just easy targets." 
 
"It's true the homeless are more likely to be victims then the population at large," said Carmi Finn. "But I think giving them shotguns is not going to help them one little bit."

Carmi Finn is with the gun control group Moms Demand Action.  She says some homeless people don't have IDs so how could they get background checks? And what about those who struggle with addiction or a mental illness?

"Also the issue of safe storage," she said. "If you do not have a home, you do not have a gun safe and you don't have any place to safely store that gun to protect yourself or the people around you, or to keep it from being stolen by other criminals on the street."

FOX 2: "Many would make the argument, if you really care about the homeless you would be working really hard to get them off the street and not so much to put guns in their hands?" 

"Well I think the implication is everyone wants to be off the street or everyone wants to work. Some people just want to be left alone," Ellison said.

"This has 'really bad idea' written all over it," Finn said.

Ellison's call to arms come as teens urge people to lay them down. Thousands took part in school walk-outs Wednesday, a demonstration supporting more gun control legislation.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers are working on bills. That would allow teachers to carry guns on school grounds. 

Gun advocate Rick Ector from the Firearm Academy said he would only support arming the homeless if they could get also get permanent housing.