A vote tells residents they must own guns

You may have heard the story about how the little town of Nelson recently voted to require residents to own a gun. It was a unanimous vote of the city council and follows by 30 years that same requirement in Kennesaw. This is obviously a movement that is gaining steam.

Question is, can a city or county in Georgia mandate gun ownership?

O.C.G.A. Sec. 16-11-173(a) provides that the regulation of firearms is a matter of “general, state concern.” The Legislature goes on to prohibit counties and cities from enacting laws that pretend to govern design, marketing, manufacturing or sale of firearms. They go on to declare that only the State has the authority to bring any action against a gun manufacturer.

The point of this law is to prevent the New York situation where Mayor Nanny Bloomberg is suing gun manufacturers for the failure of NYC to maintain control of their own environment. You see, NYC is among the toughest in the country on the lawful ownership of guns. NYC basically bans handguns. They claim it is really effective, as their deaths by handguns are down 30 percent over the past decade.

They also have soda bans, popcorn limits and you can only see “The English Patient” two times without a doctor’s note (once almost killed me).

Now, of the 366 people murdered (not suicide) last year in NYC, how many were shot by a criminal without a gun permit? All of them. Wow! You mean the criminal didn’t bother to comply with New York’s gun ban?

So Hiz Honor, the Most Royal Nanny, who takes armed security guards to Bermuda, denies that right to average folks in NYC. It was that idiocy that the Georgia Legislature was contemplating when they prohibited city/county interference with gun laws.

There is a Georgia exception to government intrusion on firearms and it is O.C.G.A. 16-11-173(d) which states that: “Nothing contained in this Code section shall prohibit municipalities or counties, by ordinance, resolution, or other enactment, from requiring the ownership of guns by heads of households within the political subdivision.”

So while Kennesaw or Nelson or Warner Robins cannot ban gun ownership or limit it in any way, it can require that the head of household be required to own a gun. Turns out that neither Nelson or Kennesaw actually enforce that gun ownership requirement; it is voluntary compliance and a message to the criminal element. Apparently the message is important.

Kennesaw’s property crime rate is 243 per 100,000, NYC’s is 1,674 per 100,000. That’s almost a 700 percent jump. The violent crime rate comparison is roughly 1,000 percent worse in NYC. Given those numbers, maybe mandatory gun ownership makes more sense that gun bans.  

Kelly Burke, former district attorney and magistrate judge, is engaged in private practice. He focuses on personal injury cases and corporate litigation. These articles are not designed to give legal advice, but are designed to inform the public about how the law affects their daily lives. Contact Kelly at kelly@burkelasseterllc.com to comment on this article or suggest articles about the law that you’d like to see.

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