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Gun Ownership in Kennesaw, Georgia

  1. Was such a law actually passed?
  2. Did crime rates in the city really drop?
DJClayworth
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  • [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennesaw,_Georgia) confirms the 1982 law. It says nothing about whether crime rates dropped thereafter, though it does state that "In 2001, violent crime rates are about 85% below national and state rates." Are you looking for a more official confirmation of the law? – Reinstate Monica -- notmaynard Jul 27 '15 at 22:38
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    Note that any effect could easily be one of transferring local criminal activity to surrounding areas without similar legislation, so the implication that some poster seem to be pushing ("if everywhere had that law we'd see lower crime rates everywhere") need not be true even if this claim is true. Bruce Schneier like to analyze security measures in terms of transfer effects. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Jul 27 '15 at 22:43
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    And beware that changes to gun laws tend to cause a **temporary** reduction in crime no matter what the change. – Loren Pechtel Jul 28 '15 at 03:02
  • Nelson, Georgia also has essentially the same law http://www.nelsongeorgia.com/family-protection-ordinance – DavePhD Jul 28 '15 at 17:35
  • Are you asking about **causality** or not? Your question title says yes, but your questions (1.) and (2.) imply not. Should (2.) end with "as a result" ? – 410 gone Jul 29 '15 at 11:28
  • Not asking about causality (never going to prove it anyway). Edited question. – DJClayworth Jul 29 '15 at 13:04

2 Answers2

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1.Was such a law actually passed?
2.Did crime rates in the city really drop?

Yes, as explained in Kennesaw, Georgia's 1982 Gun Mandate Still On The Books, Every Home Owns A Gun:

Kennesaw's 1982 gun mandate was a direct response to a gun -ban- enacted a year earlier in Morton Grove, Illinois. That was later deemed unconstitutional, but Kennesaw's law is still on the books.

Added Lt. Graydon, "It was not meant to be an enforceable law. The police department has never searched homes to make sure you had a gun. It was meant more or less as a political statement to support citizens' second amendment rights to own firearms."

After the law went into effect in 1982, city leaders say they witnessed a 29% drop in crime. Over the last 30 years, the crime rate has remained low with just four gun-related homicides.

See also City of Kennesaw Comprehensive Plan 2006-2026 at page 40:

Kennesaw once again was in the news on May 1, 1982, when the City unanimously passed a law requiring "every head of household to maintain a firearm together with ammunition." After passage of the law, the burglary rate in Kennesaw declined and even today, the City has the lowest crime rate in Cobb County.

According to the New York Times 11 April 1987 article GEORGIA TOWN TO CELEBRATE MANDATORY FIREARMS

In 1981, the year before the ordinance was adopted, Kennesaw recorded 55 house burglaries. The next year there were 26, and in 1985 only 11. Meanwhile, Mr. Stephenson said the city had recorded no deaths or injuries as a result of gun accidents.

Community
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DavePhD
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    Interesting, but I don't think much of their crime stuff is causal as the original question claims. The whole country (and Georgia specifically) experienced a [drop in crime](http://www.ucrdatatool.gov/Search/Crime/State/RunCrimeTrendsInOneVar.cfm) at exactly that time. And I suspect that the low gun homicide rate isn't that atypical for a small city with a low poverty rate and high per capita income overall. Having a low crime rate when per family income is pretty high isn't unexpected. – KAI Jul 28 '15 at 16:06
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    @KAI I only meant "yes" to the two questions in the body of the OP, "1.Was such a law actually passed? 2.Did crime rates in the city really drop?", maybe I should edit to make more clear. – DavePhD Jul 28 '15 at 16:09
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    Interesting that their "low" rate of gun homicides is higher than Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and virtually all Western European countries. – DJClayworth Jul 28 '15 at 17:52
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    @DJClayworth Kennesaw only had one murder in the past 5 years: http://www.kennesaw-ga.gov/crime-statistics/ – DavePhD Jul 28 '15 at 17:57
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    @DJClayworth before that, 3 people were murdered in "school safety zone" where guns where prohibited : http://www.examiner.com/article/mass-murder-inside-school-safety-zone-kennesaw – DavePhD Jul 28 '15 at 18:00
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    ...which in no way contradicts the statement that Kennesaw has a higher per-population (gun) homicide rate than most Western countries. – DJClayworth Jul 28 '15 at 18:01
  • Even more interesting that Kennesaw, despite it's apparrently strong belief that the presence of guns makes things safer, finds the need to have a "school safety zone" where guns are prohibited. – DJClayworth Jul 28 '15 at 18:04
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    @DJClayworth the state of Georgia requires the 1000 foot zone, Kennesaw doesn't have the power to contradict the state on that – DavePhD Jul 28 '15 at 18:06
  • How many years did it take for that fall of 29%? – Christian Aug 03 '15 at 11:06
  • @KAI, You link you cited suggests you're incorrect. The state-wide drop in crime was half what it was in Kennesaw. e.g. They had a -52% drop in burglaries vs a -22% drop state-wide over the same time. – Cerin Jun 22 '16 at 00:00
  • @Cerin Not really. Overall crime rate is a (nonlinear) function of many variables. That is, it will depend on things like income level of the city, urban v suburban v rural, etc. The drop in crime rate will happen at different rates, so a spread in drops is probably not unexpected. In other words, I don't think that its surprising that not all cities are experiencing a ~50% drop in burglaries even if you take guns out of the picture. It would be interesting to see if Kennesaw's drop in (e.g.) burglaries was unusually large for a city of its kind, but I don't have that kind of data. – KAI Jun 22 '16 at 16:02
  • @KAI, Interesting how your link was solely sufficient before for you to draw conclusions criticizing gun ownership, but now it's suddenly insufficient... [Here's](https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/table-8/10tbl08ga.xls) a breakdown of crime by town in Georgia for recent years. If we could find a similar data for 1982, we could use surrounding towns as control groups to estimate the effect of the town's policy. They continue to have much lower crime than 83% of all other towns in Georgia. I suspect that's not a coincidence. – Cerin Jun 22 '16 at 23:30
  • @Cerin I used the existence of multivariable statistics as my justification for doubting the original claim. I then listed a number of possibly conflating factors. When you are dealing with a multidimensional dataset you have to be very careful with correlation and causality. I agree that it is probably not a coincidence that Kennesaw has a low crime rate - the city has a very high per capita income, which is a known to be a very good predictor of crime rate. – KAI Jun 23 '16 at 16:47
  • In any case, the link to the crime breakdown is useful because we can look at the year to year variability in (e.g.) burglaries and compare that to what was discussed in the original article. It is unfortunate that this doesn't cover the same time span, but it will give us some handle on what is reasonable. I took a quick look over a 3 year span from 2000 to 2003 in GA. Doubling or halving of crime rates happens. Griffin, a city the same size as Kennesaw, went from 420 to 212 burglaries for example. Kennesaw itself went from 46 to 89 burglaries, a pretty large fractional change. – KAI Jun 23 '16 at 16:53
  • The only burglar in town met a girl from LA and decided to move there... The statistics are simply not significant with such a low number of citizens and incidents. – fishinear Jul 06 '21 at 17:37
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[This is currently only a partial answer, in that addresses only one of the multiple claims. Feel free to steal it for your own fuller answer.]

The Kennesaw, Georgia Code of Ordinances currently does contain this law.

Article II, Section 34-21

Sec. 34-21. - Heads of households to maintain firearms.

(a) In order to provide for the emergency management of the city, and further in order to provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants, every head of household residing in the city limits is required to maintain a firearm, together with ammunition therefore.

(b) Exempt from the effect of this section are those heads of households who suffer a physical or mental disability which would prohibit them from using such a firearm. Further exempt from the effect of this section are those heads of households who are paupers or who conscientiously oppose maintaining firearms as a result of beliefs or religious doctrine, or persons convicted of a felony.

(Ord. No. 2009-03, Exh. A, 2-16-09)

This does not confirm that it was passed unanimously, nor that it was passed in 1982 (in fact, it would suggest it was passed in February 2009, but perhaps it replaced a similar earlier law?) but does confirm it was passed.

This does not demonstrate causality, nor even correlation, with crime figures.

Oddthinking
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  • I note that I can find no definition of "Head(s) of household(s)", and wonder if it has any meaning under US law. It seems to assume a household power structure that is hardly universal. – Oddthinking Jul 28 '15 at 01:26
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    Local law can differ from federal law, but *head of household* is a category in filing US federal income taxes. See http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch02.html – Paul Jul 28 '15 at 03:34
  • @Paul: Interesting. And therefore only unmarried people need have firearms? I clearly don't understand this. We should probably take to chat to discuss further. – Oddthinking Jul 28 '15 at 04:40
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    @Oddthinking - basically, main taxpayer in any household for tax calculation purposes. Marriage has nothing to do with it - single filer is their own head of household for tax purposes. – user5341 Jul 28 '15 at 14:13
  • @Oddthinking the law was definitely passed in 1982. Perhaps the was an amendment in 2009. See this 2007 Reuters article for example: http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/04/18/us-usa-crime-shooting-town-idUSN1719257620070418 – DavePhD Jul 28 '15 at 15:03
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    "...or who conscientiously oppose maintaining firearms as a result of beliefs or religious doctrine..." That would make it more a suggestion than a requirement. – Rusty Jul 29 '15 at 03:53
  • @Oddthinking "head of household" means one adult in the household. The law is generally not specific about exactly which adult. The IRS allows any adult to claim that status for tax purposes, so long as there's only one per household. In practical terms, it means "one per household." A single person living alone is a household, as is an inter-generational family of 20 (living under the same roof). – Jeffiekins Feb 20 '18 at 16:31