Gun Ownership Essay

KENNESAW, Ga Several Kennesaw officials attri notwithstandinge a drop in crime in the urban center over the past two decades to a integrity that requires residents to start out a gun in the house. In 1982, the Kennesaw City Council unanimously passed a law requiring heads of households to own at least one and only(a) firearm with ammunition. The regulation states the gun law is needed to protect the safety, security and usual welf be of the tubingpolis and its inhabitants. Then-councilman J.O. Stephenson utter afterward the ordering was passed, everyone went crazy. People all over the country utter there would be shootings in the road and violence in homes, he said. Of course, that wasnt the case. In fact, according to Stephenson, it caused the crime rate in the city to plunge. Kennesaw Historical Society president Robert Jones said following the laws passage, the crime rate dropped 89 percent in the city, compared to the modest 10 percent drop statewide. It did drop aft er it was passed, he said. afterward it initially dropped, it has stayed at the same low level for the past 16 years. Mayor Leonard Church was non in office when the law was passed, but he said he is a staunch booster station of it. You cant argue with the fact that Kennesaw has the lowest crime rate of any city our size of it in the country, said Church, who owns a denture-making company in Kennesaw. The author of the ordinance, local attorney Fred Bentley Sr., attributes at least some of the decrease in crime to the bill. I am definitely in favor of what we did, he said. It may non be totally responsible for the decrease, but it is a part.Although he is pleased with the prohibitedcome, Bentley said he was originally opposed to drafting the law. I didnt think it could be written in a constitutional fashion, he said. Obviously, it was constitutional, because the American Civil Liberties Union challenged it in court and we won. Jones said the ACLU challenged the law in a federa l court just after it was passed. In response, the city added a clause adding conscientious objectors to the list of those exempt. Although the law is now being credited with a drop in crime, Jones said that was not the laws original purpose. He also pointed out that Kennesaw did not have a grown problem with crime before. The crime rate wasnt that high to start with. It was 11 burglaries per 1,000 residents in1981, he said. According to the Kennesaw Police Department, the citys most recent crime statistics show 243 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 1998, or .243 per 1,000. The citys crime rate continues to be far below other metro Atlanta citys with similar populations, like Decatur. In 1998, Decatur recorded 4,049 property crimes per 100,000 residents. Jones said one motivation for the council passing the ordinance had to do with publicity. It was done in response to a law passed by Morton Grove, Ill., outlawing gun ownership within the city limits, he said. Several counc il members were upset Morton Grove had gotten a standoff of attention with their ordinance so they decided to top them. They figured the gun ownership ordinance would rush that city right off the front pages. They were right. Jones said the ensuing publicity surrounding the law has precondition Kennesaw worldwide name recognition. I have been to Australia and Europe and when I tell people I am from Kennesaw they recognize the name as the place that requires everyone to own a gun, he said. But Stephenson said the bailiwick was not publicity-driven but issue-driven. We believed in the right of people to own guns, he said. Jones said he has sell 550 copies of a 1994 book about the first-of-its-kind law, The Law Heard Round the World. He said the law in its final form has many loopholes, so not everyone is required to own a gun. There are many outs, he said. When you look at it, almost anyone could fit into one of the exempted groups.Kennesaw Police Chief Dwaine Wilson said no one h as ever been prosecuted under the ordinance. Among those exempt are residents who conscientiously oppose maintaining firearms as a result of beliefs or religious doctrine. Others exempt include the physically and mentally disabled, paupers and those convicted of a felony. The law contains no clause addressing punishment for violating the law. If convicted, City Clerk Diane Coker said punishment would be determined by the general penalty clause of the Kennesaw Code Ordinance probably a fine of about $100. Jones said the peculiar law has not deterred anyone from moving to Kennesaw. Our population has increased just like everyones in gallium in the past 20 years, he said. The law really hasnt done any prostitute to the citys growth. The citys population in 1998 was recorded at 14,493 a swell increase over the 8,936 residents recorded in the 1990 census. Cobb Chamber of Commerce president Bill Cooper said odd laws are typically not counted as strike against a city when a task is looking to relocate.These laws dont have laws dont have an impact on a companys decision to move to Cobb County, Cooper said. Many communities have strange laws that are out of date. Businesses look at many factors when relocating, such as quality of life, education, infrastructure and available workforce. Bentley said the law actually may have helped business development. Kennesaw is home to more manufacturing businesses than any other Cobb city, he said. Companies have said they want to be located in conservative areas. And Kennesaw isnt the only city in Cobb with an unusual law on the books. According to Jeff Koon, who runs a Web site specializing in funny laws, Dumblaws.com, Acworth has an ordinance requiring residents to own a rake. In Marietta, it is illegal to spit from a car or a bus, but perfectly legal to spit from a truck.