in Kennesaw, GeorgiaIt's against the law no To own a gun.
The city law, which dates back to the 1980s, requires residents to own guns and ammunition.
Kennesaw Weapon law It states: “In order to provide for and protect the general safety, security and welfare of the City and its residents, every head of household residing within the City limits is required to maintain a firearm with ammunition.” The law excludes residents with mental or physical disabilities, those convicted of felonies, or conflicting religious beliefs.
“It's not like you wear it on your hip like the Wild Wild West,” says Derek Easterling, the city's three-term mayor. He told BBC News. “We're not going to knock on your door and say, 'Let me see your gun.'
A city law dating back to 1982 requires residents of Kennesaw, Georgia, to own guns and ammunition. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The city's mayor told the BBC that to his knowledge and that of several other local officials, there had been no prosecutions or arrests for violating the 1982 law.
The law is a source of pride for some and embarrassment for others. Most residents told the BBC that the law keeps citizens safe as there were no homicides in the city in 2023, according to data from the Kennesaw Police Department. However, there were two suicides using firearms.
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“If anything, criminals should be worried, because if they break into your house while you're there, they won't know what you've got,” customers at a local pizza shop said.
“It's the attitude behind guns here in Kennesaw that reduces gun crime, not the guns,” Blake Weatherbee, groundskeeper at Kennesaw First Baptist Church, told the BBC. “It doesn't matter if it's a gun, a fork, a fist or a high-heeled shoe. We protect ourselves and our neighbors.”
The city's mayor told the BBC that to his knowledge and that of several other local officials, there had been no prosecutions or arrests for violating the 1982 law. (Associated Press)
At one point, Weatherby said he owned more than 20 guns, but now he doesn't own any.
Pat Ferris, who joined the Kennesaw City Council in 1984 a few years after the gun ordinance was passed, said it was created to be “more of a political statement than anything else,” and added that he's not sure “how many people know that” the ordinance exists. “
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Morton Grove, Illinois became the first city in the United States to ban gun possession, but Kennesaw became the first to require it. Similar laws have been passed in at least four other US cities: Gun Barrel City, Texas; Virgin, Utah; Nelson, Georgia and Nocla, Colorado.
City Councilwoman Madeleine Orochena called the law “a strange little fact about our community.”
She told the BBC: “Residents will either roll their eyes in shame or laugh at it.”
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