According to The Daily Wire reports, the Kennesaw City Council enacted a law requiring every head of the family to keep a working gun in their residence in 1982. Each of the 5,000 residents of the Georgia community would suddenly reside within steps from a lethal weapon. The outcome shocked both citizens and lawmakers within a year of the mandate.
But the freedom of the average citizen to keep and bear arms has come under fire from many people as the gun control debate continues. The debate usually centers on what limitations should be placed on our Second Amendment rights, despite the unquestionable claim that widespread gun ownership will only increase gun crime. The outcomes in Kennesaw, however, refute a lot about firearms and what we have been told about them.
According to Florida State University professor Gary Kleck, burglaries fell by a startling 89 percent one year after the rule was put into effect, despite the state only experiencing a 10.4-percent decline in the same category. Providing evidence that the mandate was effective, the nation saw a 9.6-percent decline, at the same time.
“Finally, the deterrent effect of civilian gun ownership is supported by the experience of Kennesaw, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta with a 1980 population of 5,095…To demonstrate their disapproval of a ban on handgun ownership passed in Morton Grove, Illinois, the Kennesaw City council passed a city ordinance requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in their homes. In the seven months following passage of the ordinance (March 15, 1982 to October 31, 1982), there were only five reported residential burglaries, compared to 45 in the same period in the previous year, an 89 percent decrease…This drop was far in excess of the modest 10.4 percent decrease in the burglary rate experienced by Georgia as a whole from 1981 to 1982, the 6.8 percent decrease for South Atlantic states, the 9.6 percent decrease for the United States, and the 7.1 percent decrease for cities under 10,000 population…”
When the Orlando Police Department instructed over 2,500 women in the safe use of weapons, Kleck found that the rate of rape fell by an astounding 89 percent in Orlando. The project was a reaction to the alarming increase in sexual assaults. A no unusuality in the impacts in Kennesaw.
Kleck noted that the “rape rate remained constant in the rest of Florida and the United States,” further supporting the causal influence.
Kleck’s findings also highlight the sometimes-disregarded fact that citizen possession of firearms significantly reduces crime. Along with a sharp decline in sexual assaults, other crimes decreased as well, including burglaries, which saw “a substantial drop,” as arming the women in Orlando had other unforeseen effects as well.
The number of crimes that are prevented as a result of private ownership is largely ignored by gun control supporters, who frequently use gun crime figures. The Foundation for Economic Education estimates that guns stop 2.5 million crimes annually, or 6,849 offenses every day. The vast majority of the time, the gun never fires, which usually results in a non-violent de-escalation of the attempted crimes. The study comes to the conclusion that firearms are thought to save 400,000 lives.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” The Heritage Foundation continues, “almost every major study on defensive gun use has found that Americans use their firearms defensively between 500,000 and 3 million times each year. There’s good reason to believe that most defensive gun uses are never reported to law enforcement, much less picked up by local or national media outlets…[I]t highlights just a fraction of the incredible number of times Americans relied on the Second Amendment — not the government getting there in time — to protect their inalienable rights. Despite the limitations on data, these confirmed cases of defensive gun use help prove that the ‘good guy with a gun’ is not a myth, but an integral part of American society.”
Criminals confirm that they stay away from homes with armed residents as well because they don’t want to risk getting shot. As 60% of criminals with convictions confessed that they had consciously avoided attacking a target who they knew was armed. And according to 40% of criminals also admitted that they wouldn’t commit crimes even if they thought their intended victims may be carrying a gun.
Less than 1% of firearms are used to commit crimes, despite the fact that critics note that some criminals may be armed themselves. However, if the victim is equally armed and comes against a violent offender, their odds are greater.
Numerous studies on private gun ownership have demonstrated how having a well-armed population can save lives. Evidence consistently demonstrates that when people are in charge of their personal safety, they are less likely to become victims.
But with a dangerous criminal intent on harming them, the sad reality is that most Americans don’t stand much of a chance if faced. Providing them with the equity required to protect themselves, a firearm acts as the great equalizer for many women, members of underrepresented minorities, people with disabilities, and the elderly.
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Sources: TapHaps, Datavisualizations.heritage.org, The Daily Wire