www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55288
In March 1982, 25 years ago, the small town of Kennesaw - responding to a handgun ban in Morton Grove, Ill. Since then, despite dire predictions of "Wild West" showdowns and increased violence and accidents, not a single resident has been involved in a fatal shooting - as a victim, attacker or defender. The crime rate initially plummeted for several years after the passage of the ordinance, with the 2005 per capita crime rate actually significantly lower than it was in 1981, the year before passage of the law. Prior to enactment of the law, Kennesaw had a population of just 5,242 but a crime rate significantly higher (4,332 per 100,000) than the national average (3,899 per 100,000). The latest statistics available - for the year 2005 - show the rate at 2,027 per 100,000. Today, by comparison, the township's crime rate stands at 2,268 per 100,000. In a column titled "Gun Town USA," Art Buchwald suggested Kennesaw would soon become a place where routine disagreements between neighbors would be settled in shootouts. The Washington Post mocked Kennesaw as "the brave little city soon to be pistol-packing capital of the world." Reuters, the European news service, today revisited the Kennesaw controversy following the Virginia Tech Massacre. Craig Graydon said: "When the Kennesaw law was passed in 1982 there was a substantial drop in crime and we have maintained a really low crime rate since then. We are sure it is one of the lowest (crime) towns in the metro area." The Reuters story went on to report: "Since the Virginia Tech shootings, some conservative US talk show hosts have rejected attempts to link the massacre to the availability of guns, arguing that had students been allowed to carry weapons on campus someone might have been able to shoot the killer." Virginia Tech, like many of the nation's schools and college campuses, is a so-called "gun-free zone," which Second Amendment supporters say invites gun violence - especially from disturbed individuals seeking to kill as many victims as possible. Cho Seung-Hui murdered 32 and wounded another 15 before turning his gun on himself.
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