Post by Woody Williams on Oct 2, 2006 7:39:30 GMT -5
Councilman to Idaho town: Get your guns
By Gwen Florio, USA TODAY
The Town Council in Greenleaf, Idaho, is considering a recommendation that all households keep and maintain guns because of the crime that might come with the encroaching growth from nearby Boise.
To date, violent crime is nearly unheard of in Greenleaf, population 890, admits City Councilman Steve Jett, who proposed the ordinance the council will take up Tuesday. Even so, Jett says it's only a matter of time.
"The biggest thing I was looking at is preparation," Jeff says.
When asked about violent crime in Greenleaf, which doesn't have its own police force, Albert Erickson, police chief of neighboring Wilder, says, "I don't remember any."
Erickson, whose department covers Greenleaf, finally recalled a domestic-violence complaint there last year. "But I don't even know that it went to court."
Boise is not exactly a hotbed of violence. Its violent crime rate last year was 383 per 100,000 people, below the national average of 469 but higher than Idaho's rate of 257 per 100,000, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report.
Greenleaf's proposalis not surprising, especially in the West, says David Kopel, of the Denver-based Independence Institute, a free-market think tank.
Kopel, author of The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies?, ranks Montana as the state with the strongest gun rights, closely followed by Idaho and Wyoming.
"These laws are more suggestive of culture and attitude than a real attempt to arm everybody," says Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association.
The Montana Legislature routinely considers resolutions urging residents to own guns. Aumsville, Ore., considered, but rejected, an ordinance similar to Greenleaf's proposal in 2001, a year after the tiny southern Utah town of Virgin passed one.
In a nod to Greenleaf's Quaker roots — it takes its name from Quaker abolitionist and poet John Greenleaf Whittier — Jett says his proposal is merely a recommendation, not a requirement like Virgin's. The wording exempts convicted felons, others prohibited from owning guns and those who object to gun ownership.
The ordinance is modeled on a 1982 law in Kennesaw, Ga., a town that, like Greenleaf, found itself becoming a suburb to a sprawling state capital. "It was basically the law heard 'round the world," says Kennesaw Mayor Leonard Church. He says he has received inquiries from as far away as Australia about Kennesaw's measure.
Although the law is largely a formality — "We don't go door to door, saying, 'Show me your gun' " — Church says studies show enactment of the law coincides with a marked drop in burglaries and violent crime.
Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, says the group doesn't oppose Greenleaf's proposal.
"There aren't too many rural towns in Idaho where everybody doesn't already have a gun," he says. "And we fully support the right of law-abiding citizens ... to own a firearm for self-defense, or hunting, or sporting purposes."
By Gwen Florio, USA TODAY
The Town Council in Greenleaf, Idaho, is considering a recommendation that all households keep and maintain guns because of the crime that might come with the encroaching growth from nearby Boise.
To date, violent crime is nearly unheard of in Greenleaf, population 890, admits City Councilman Steve Jett, who proposed the ordinance the council will take up Tuesday. Even so, Jett says it's only a matter of time.
"The biggest thing I was looking at is preparation," Jeff says.
When asked about violent crime in Greenleaf, which doesn't have its own police force, Albert Erickson, police chief of neighboring Wilder, says, "I don't remember any."
Erickson, whose department covers Greenleaf, finally recalled a domestic-violence complaint there last year. "But I don't even know that it went to court."
Boise is not exactly a hotbed of violence. Its violent crime rate last year was 383 per 100,000 people, below the national average of 469 but higher than Idaho's rate of 257 per 100,000, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report.
Greenleaf's proposalis not surprising, especially in the West, says David Kopel, of the Denver-based Independence Institute, a free-market think tank.
Kopel, author of The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies?, ranks Montana as the state with the strongest gun rights, closely followed by Idaho and Wyoming.
"These laws are more suggestive of culture and attitude than a real attempt to arm everybody," says Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association.
The Montana Legislature routinely considers resolutions urging residents to own guns. Aumsville, Ore., considered, but rejected, an ordinance similar to Greenleaf's proposal in 2001, a year after the tiny southern Utah town of Virgin passed one.
In a nod to Greenleaf's Quaker roots — it takes its name from Quaker abolitionist and poet John Greenleaf Whittier — Jett says his proposal is merely a recommendation, not a requirement like Virgin's. The wording exempts convicted felons, others prohibited from owning guns and those who object to gun ownership.
The ordinance is modeled on a 1982 law in Kennesaw, Ga., a town that, like Greenleaf, found itself becoming a suburb to a sprawling state capital. "It was basically the law heard 'round the world," says Kennesaw Mayor Leonard Church. He says he has received inquiries from as far away as Australia about Kennesaw's measure.
Although the law is largely a formality — "We don't go door to door, saying, 'Show me your gun' " — Church says studies show enactment of the law coincides with a marked drop in burglaries and violent crime.
Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, says the group doesn't oppose Greenleaf's proposal.
"There aren't too many rural towns in Idaho where everybody doesn't already have a gun," he says. "And we fully support the right of law-abiding citizens ... to own a firearm for self-defense, or hunting, or sporting purposes."
