John De Armond said:
Kennesaw is the city. Even though the law is symbolic, it served its purpose. Burglaries dropped to zero the following year. That’s ZERO. Nadda.
Gee, this story gets better every time it is told. Next time it is repeated I suppose we will hear about how the the Kennesaw gun law caused the rate to become negative.
Here are the actual numbers (from Sociology & Social Research v74:1 p51)
Kennesaw Burglaries 1976-1986
76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 48 85 86
41 21 22 35 35 54 35 35 29 32 70
The Kennesaw law was passed on March 15, 1982 and pretty clearly had no effect on the burglary rate.
They have not stayed at zero but considering that Kennesaw is part of Cherokee county, the fastest growing county in the state, that it is part of metro Atlanta, the crime capitol of the nation (well almost), and that it is surrounded by counties where the crime rate has skyrocketed with the population boom, I’d have to say Kennesaw did right well by itself. My only regret is not having bought a house a couple of miles to the north in Kennesaw.
Provide evidence that burglaries skyrocketed in neighbouring counties and we will discuss it.