[HsSp82U8]

Kennesaw is a little bit country, a little bit rock 'n roll. It has gun ranges and Confederate clubs, shopping malls and Starbucks. With the growth of the Atlanta metro area, it has become a fairly wealthy suburb, and it's not a bad place to live. Politically it is very conservative.

Here's where the FT article gets a little bit lazy: it compares Kennesaw's crime rate against two other Georgia towns with higher crime, Dalton and Hinesville, and concludes that Kennesaw's gun policy is working. But Dalton and Hinesville (which are not suburbs of Atlanta) have just half the median income of Kennsaw, and triple the poverty rates. So it's a bad comparison. in Kennesaw, some of the social problems that cause crime, like unstable families and failing schools, just aren't so much in effect.

As for the gun laws of the three Georgia towns -- I'd guess that most people in Dalton and Hinesville have guns, too, just like Kennesaw. Most people in Georgia have guns.

A suburb in our area of similar size and wealth to Kennesaw is Scotch Plains, N.J. -- but Scotch Plains actually has lower crime than Kennesaw. Should Kennesaw drop its mandatory gun law and do whatever Scotch Plains is doing?