In The 1980s, A Georgia Town Required Everyone To Own A Gun, What Happened After Is…

Since 1982, when its authorities established a law requiring its residents to own firearms, one Georgia town has been thinking outside the box when it comes to America’s approach to gun crime.

In Kennesaw, Georgia, local law says that “every head of household residing in the city limits is required to maintain a firearm.”

In a report by The Daily Wire, the Kennesaw City Council passed an ordinance requiring every head of household to possess a functioning firearm at their home in 1982. The results shocked both citizens and lawmakers within a year of the mandate, as each of the 5,000 people, residents in the Georgia community would now live within feet of a deadly weapon.

The freedom of the average citizen to keep and bear arms has come under fire from many people as the gun control debate continues.

Even while the discussion about weapons rages on in Washington and in localities across the nation, the one region in the country where having a gun is technically required by law, refutes a lot of what we have been told about firearms. Despite the unquestionable claim that widespread gun ownership will only increase gun crime, the debate usually centers on what limitations should be placed on our Second Amendment rights.

According to Florida State University Professor Gary Kleck, despite the state only experiencing a 10.4-percent decline in the same category, burglaries fell by a startling 89 percent one year after the rule was put into effect. But the country experienced a 9.6% drop, showing that the mandate was successful, during the same period.

“Finally, the deterrent effect of civilian gun ownership is supported by the experience of Kennesaw, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta with a 1980 population of 5,095…To demonstrate their disapproval of a ban on handgun ownership passed in Morton Grove, Illinois, the Kennesaw City council passed a city ordinance requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in their homes. In the seven months following passage of the ordinance (March 15, 1982 to October 31, 1982), there were only five reported residential burglaries, compared to 45 in the same period in the previous year, an 89 percent decrease…This drop was far in excess of the modest 10.4 percent decrease in the burglary rate experienced by Georgia as a whole from 1981 to 1982, the 6.8 percent decrease for South Atlantic states, the 9.6 percent decrease for the United States, and the 7.1 percent decrease for cities under 10,000 population…”

Kennesaw noted that the “rape rate remained constant in the rest of Florida and the United States,” adding to the causative effect, as the effects in Kennesaw aren’t an anomaly.

Approximately 2,500 women were trained in the proper use of firearms by the Orlando Police Department in response to skyrocketing sexual assaults following the training session, Kennesaw discovered that rape decreased by 89 percent in Orlando.

Kleck’s studies point to the often overlooked reality that citizen ownership of firearms prevents crime on a massive scale because not only did sexual assaults drastically decline, but other crimes dropped as well, including “a substantial drop” in burglaries.

The Foundation for Economic Education estimates that guns stop 2.5 million crimes annually, or 6,849 offenses every day. The vast majority of the time, the gun never fires, which usually results in a non-violent de-escalation of the attempted crimes. The study comes to the conclusion that firearms are thought to save 400,000 lives.

While the number of crimes that are prevented as a result of private ownership is largely ignored by gun control supporters, who frequently use gun crime figures.

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost every major study on defensive gun use has found that Americans use their firearms defensively between 500,000 and 3 million times each year. There’s good reason to believe that most defensive gun uses are never reported to law enforcement, much less picked up by local or national media outlets…[I]t highlights just a fraction of the incredible number of times Americans relied on the Second Amendment — not the government getting there in time — to protect their inalienable rights. Despite the limitations on data, these confirmed cases of defensive gun use help prove that the ‘good guy with a gun’ is not a myth, but an integral part of American society,” The Heritage Foundation continues.

Furthermore, criminals admit to avoiding breaking into the homes of armed residents for fear of being shot. As 60% of convicted felons admitted to purposefully avoiding targeting a victim they knew was armed Forty percent admitted that they would not commit a crime if they even suspected their intended victims had a firearm.

Individuals are less likely to be victimized when they have control over their personal safety as evidence shows, numerous studies on private firearm ownership have shown that a well-armed population saves lives.

Sources: Taphaps, Thegrio, Dailywire