Forcing me to have healthcare? Tyranny. Forcing me to have a gun? Freedom.
by David Atkins
Ah, the joys of local control.
Late Monday, Nelson, Georgia passed a law called the “Family Protection Ordinance” that requires every adult in the 1,300-person town to own a gun “for purposes of emergency management and general safety of the city.”
The town’s Police Chief, Heath Mitchell, told the AP that he hopes “having a gun would help residents take their protection into their own hands,” since the town has an understaffed police department and slow response time to 911 calls.
One councilman even used the National Rifle Association’s call for arming all Americans to defend the law, saying “I really felt like this ordinance was a security sign for our city. Basically it was a deterrent ordinance to tell potential criminals they might want to go on down the road a little bit.” Overall, the measure signals that government officials believe residents, not police departments, should be responsible for their own protection and rejects state and federal governments’ efforts to reduce gun violence through increased regulation of firearms.
This little town of 1300 already has a low crime rate, so more power to them if their pistols can help prevent heart attacks and strokes when the 911 response is slow. A bullet can solve any problem, or so they say.
The town is also overwhelmingly conservative, so I'm sure the Affordable Care Act's mandate isn't terribly popular. Government tyranny, you know. Requiring someone to buy health insurance is just the sort of federal imposition on freedom that a local ordinance requiring someone to buy a gun is designed to protect against.
Wolverines!
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