Pennsylvania’s Conoy Township has posted anti-gun control signs throughout the township that read, “Welcome To Conoy Township: This Is Not A Gun Free Zone.”
The goal is to let criminals know they will not find a township full of empty homes or sitting ducks.
According to Ammoland.com, “Police in the township aren’t taking a position on the signs themselves, but say they’re for anything that deters crime.”
Undergirding the decision to post the signs is the observation that “whenever criminals are made aware of the possibility of resistance, they tend to look for easier targets.”
Dave Kopel has explained this in scholarship that shows the lengths to which burglars will go to avoid contact with homeowners in America. In “Lawyers, Cops, and Burglars” he writes:
It is axiomatic in the United States that burglars avoid occupied homes. As an introductory criminology text book explains, “Burglars do not want contact with occupants; they depend on stealth for success.” Only thirteen percent of U.S. residential burglaries are attempted against occupied homes. But this happy fact, so taken for granted in the U.S., is not universal.
The overall Canadian burglary rate is higher than the American one, and a Canadian burglary is four times more likely to take place when the victims are home.
In the U.S., would-be victims are likely armed, but that’s not so in Canada. That’s a contributor to the differing crime rates.
Conoy Township hopes criminals will take note.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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