City has required gun ownership since 1982

KENNESAW, Ga., Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Authorities in a Georgia town with a law requiring residents to own guns said the 1982 law was never meant as an enforceable measure.

WUSA-TV, Washington, which said it found support for the law from all residents it spoke to in Kennesaw, quoted police as saying the 1982 law requiring gun and ammunition ownership was a symbolic gesture responding to a 1981 gun ban in Morton Grove, Ill., which was later declared unconstitutional.

"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," Kennesaw police Lt. Craig Graydon said.

"We don't have shoot-outs. It's not a Wild West," Graydon said.

City officials said the crime rate dropped 29 percent after the law was passed in 1982 and has remained low, with just four gun-related homicides in the past 30 years.