The Kennesaw Gun Ordinance
The 1982 Kennesaw gun ordinance is a law that is known around the world as the city that requires everyone to own a gun. The Kennesaw City Council passed a law ordering that each household within the city limits own a gun. Over decades, this law has become unenforceable but with the city’s reputation of this gun ordinance, it seems that crime rates are lower than any other city in the country. A councilman, J.O. Stephenson spoke of the ordinance after it was passed, “People went crazy. People all over the country said there would be shootings in the street and violence in homes. Of course, that was not the case” (Gun Ownership- It’s The Law In Kennesaw). In reality, the city’s crime rates plummeted. Kennesaw State University is not within the city limits of Kennesaw, but when the law passed, the crime statewide dropped 10 percent benefiting the University.
The City Council of Kennesaw adopted the 1982 law initially as a “pro-gun reaction to a ban on handguns that had been enacted earlier that year in Morton City, Illinois” (People See What They Want to See in Kennesaw’s Famous Gun Ordinance). Some felt that the gun law was needed to “protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants” (Hamilton, Jonathan, and David Burch). Many feared that this law would have an effect on the growth of the city, but over thirty years of gradual population and business growth, this law has not slowed any advancement of the city of Kennesaw. The law does not actually require each head of household to own a gun, there are many options for citizens to exempt the ownership of rifle. The American Civil Liberties Union disputed the law in federal court, and in response to the confrontation, “added a clause adding conscientious objectors to the list of those exempt” (Hamilton, Jonathan, and...
