In Geuda Springs, Kansas, some folks are taking the right to keep and bear arms quite seriously. The town council recently passed an ordinance requiring every resident to own a firearm. But not everyone is happy about the common-sense proposal, including the Mayor, who vetoed the ordinance on Monday (December 1).

“Amazingly, we hear the same cries from the Chicken Littles of the world, every time a city or state encourages more gun ownership,” said GOA Director of Communications Erich Pratt. “Anti-gun fanatics come out of the woodwork, predicting that more guns in peoples’ hands will result in rivers of blood flowing in the streets.

“But it never happens,” Pratt said.

“Kennesaw, Georgia enacted a similar law in 1982 requiring every household to own a firearm, exempting those with criminal records or religious objections. Opponents argued the law would result in serious accidents and that angry residents would settle their differences with gunfire. Happily, those predictions never materialized.”

An early study found that the residential burglary rate in Kennesaw (in 1982) had fallen 89 percent in the seven months following the law’s enactment. That drop far outpaced the more modest 10.4 percent drop in the entire state of Georgia during that same period.

“In the ensuing years, Kennesaw’s crime rate has remained at basement levels,” Pratt said. “Last year, there was not one murder in the town. There were no accidental gun shot killings. The law has continued to work well for more than 20 years.

“Kennesaw’s results should not be surprising,” Pratt said. “Guns are a deterrent to bad guys, and we can predict that Geuda Springs would have enjoyed greater safety had the Mayor not vetoed the ordinance.”

After Mayor Edward Lacey’s veto, the town council passed a slightly revised version, which will be considered by the full council at their February 2 meeting.