How do you improve upon already impossibly-low violent crime rates? Force everyone in town to buy a gun. That's much of the logic behind one small Georgia city's recent approval of a new law that requires every resident to own a firearm.
The tiny town of Nelson, Ga., a city 50 miles north of Atlanta with a population of about 1,300, voted unanimously Monday to pass the new law requiring its residents to own guns. The law goes into effect in 10 days.
"I likened it to a security sign that people put up in their front yards," said sponsor of the law Councilman Duane Cronic. "Some people have security systems, some people don't, but they put those signs up. I really felt like this ordinance was a security sign for our city. Basically it was a deterrent ordinance to tell potential criminals they might want to go on down the road a little bit."
The law requires the head of every home to own a firearm and ammo to "provide for the emergency management of the city" "provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants." No word yet if muskets and/or three-cornered hats are also required.
The new law, which exempts felons and the mentally ill, carries no penalties and allows anyone to "opt out." Local officials unsurprisingly explained the measure was more about making a point about gun rights than anything else.
The city council says the purpose of the new law is the "opposition of any future attempt by the federal government to confiscate personal firearms."
Heath Mitchell, the sole police officer in Nelson, said the next two closest sheriff's offices are far from town. He said that the new gun law would allow people to better defend themselves.
One local, Lamar Kellett, compared the new measure to the city letting people "flout" the speed limit at freewill during the city council meeting, criticizing the law as "pointless."
"People who want a gun, they already have one probably," he said. "There's been no violent crime in Nelson in the past 10 years. So how are you going to improve on no violent crime?"
The gun requirement measure was based on a similar law passed in 1982 in Kennesaw, a city near Atlanta. Police in the city recognize that they have never attempted to enforce measure.
Statistics are split across the board concerning guns and self-defense. No one study has provided definitive proof for either side of the gun control argument. A recent study conducted by The Harvard Injury Control Research Center, who analyzed gun and homicide data and literature, said that available evidence indicated that more guns equals more murders, a finding it said was supported across states, and countries.