A town in Georgia where everyone should own a gun

Kennesaw, Georgia, has all the trappings of a small town one might imagine in the American South.

There is the smell of baked biscuits wafting from Honeysuckle Biscuits & Bakery and the rumble of a nearby railroad train. It’s the kind of place where newlyweds leave handwritten thank-you cards in coffee shops, praising the “luxurious” atmosphere.

But there’s another aspect of Kennesaw that some may find surprising — a city ordinance from the 1980s that legally requires residents to own guns and ammunition.

“It’s not like you’re wearing it around your waist like the Wild Wild West,” said Derek Easterling, a three-term mayor of the city who describes himself as a “retired Navy guy”.

“We will not go and knock on your door and say let me see your weapon.”

Kennesaw’s gun ordinance clearly states: “In order to provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its citizens, every head of household residing within the city limits is required to maintain a firearm, and ammunition.”

Citizens with mental or physical disabilities, criminal convictions, or conflicting religious beliefs are outlawed.

To the knowledge of Mayor Easterling, and that of many local officials, there have been no prosecutions or arrests made in violation of Article II, Sec 34-21, which became law in 1982.

And no one the BBC spoke to could say what the fine would be for being found in breach of the law.

Nevertheless, the mayor insisted: “It is not a symbolic law.

For some, the law is a source of pride, allowing the city to embrace gun culture.

For others, it is a source of shame, a page in a chapter of history they wish to move beyond.

But the biggest belief among townspeople about the gun ordinance is that it keeps Kennesaw safe.

Patrons eating pepperoni slices at a pizza restaurant will suggest: “If anything, criminals need to worry, because if they break into your home, and you’re there, they don’t know what you have.”

There were no homicides in 2023, according to data from the Kennesaw Police Department, but there were two shooting deaths.

Blake Weatherby, pastor at Kennesaw First Baptist Church, has different thoughts on why violent crime might be down.

“It’s the gun attitude here in Kennesaw that keeps gun crime down, not the guns,” Mr. Weatherby said.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a gun or a fork or a fist or a high shoe. We protect ourselves and our neighbors.”

Pat Ferris, who joined the Kennesaw city council in 1984, two years after the law was passed, said the law was meant to be “a political statement more than anything”.

After Morton Grove, Illinois became the first American city to ban gun ownership, Kennesaw became the first city to require it, making national headlines.

A 1982 New York Times opinion piece described Kennesaw officials as “excited” about the passage of the law but noted that “Yankee criminals” were absent.

Penthouse Magazine ran a cover story with the words Gun Town USA: The American City Where It’s Illegal to Own a Gun printed over a picture of a woman in bikini bottoms.

Similar gun laws have been passed in at least five cities, including Gun Barrel City, Texas and Virgin, Utah.

In the 40 years since Kennesaw’s gun law was passed, Mr. Ferris said, its existence has largely faded from consciousness.

“I don’t know how many people know that this law exists,” he said.

In the same year the gun laws came into force, Mr Weatherby, the churchwarden, was born.

He remembered when he was young when his father jokingly told him: “I don’t care if you don’t like guns, it’s the law.”

“I was taught that if you are a man you must have a gun,” he said.

Now 42, he was 12 years old when he fired a gun for the first time.

“I almost threw it away because it scared me so much,” he said.

Mr Weatherby had more than 20 guns at one time but said he now has none. He sold them over the years – including the one his father left him when he died in 2005 – to get through hard times.

“I needed fuel more than guns,” he said.

Another place he would go to sell his guns is the Deercreek Gun Shop on Main Street in Kennesaw.

James Rabun, 36, has been working at a gun shop since he graduated high school.

The family business, he said, was opened by his father and grandfather, both of whom are still located there today; his father in the back returning the guns, his grandfather in the front relaxing in a rocking chair.

For obvious reasons, Mr. Rabun is a fan of Kennesaw’s gun laws. It’s good for business.

“The cool thing about guns”, he says with sincere enthusiasm, “is that people buy them to protect themselves, but most people like works of art or like bitcoin – things that are in short supply.”

Among the piles and piles of wall-hanging weapons for sale are double-barreled black powder rifles – similar to muskets – and a few “discontinued” Winchester rifles from the 1800s.

In Kennesaw, gun popularity has a wide reach that goes beyond gun shop owners and middle-aged men.

Chris Welsh, a mother of two teenage daughters, is not shy about her gun ownership. He hunts, is a member of a gun club, and shoots at a local gun range with his two girls.

“I’m a gun owner”, he admitted, listing his inventory as including “a Ruger carry gun, a Baretta, a Glock, and about half a dozen handguns”.

However, Ms. Welsh does not like Kennesaw’s gun laws.

“I get embarrassed when I hear people talk about gun laws,” said Ms. Welsh. “It’s an old Kennesaw thing to hang on to.”

He wished that when outsiders thought of the city, they remembered parks and schools and community values ​​- not gun laws that “make people uncomfortable”.

“There’s still too much in Kennesaw,” she said.

City council member Madelyn Orochena agrees that the law is “something people would like to promote”.

“It’s a little unusual for our community,” he said.

“Citizens will roll their eyes in shame or laugh at it.”