You know, in most towns, it's required that everyone drink, in order to uphold the 21st Amendment.

I bet someone's brother in law owns a gun shop.

Greenleaf - where refugees are the new Russians.

Just a quick comment or two, from the field (I live in Boise) --

While a countless number of my beloved friends drive cars with the license plate "2C" (indicating Canyon County, where Greenleaf is), it is also a common explanation for sh*tty driving on the road. "Dude, that guy just cut me off! Oh -- 2C." Although it's more likely that they're driving a larger-than-life size diesel truck with a gun rack in the window, VERY SLOWLY in the left-most lane. AGH!

On the other hand, not that I side at all with this craziness, but I should mention that Jett's comment about refugees isn't that far off. Boise (at least from what I heard at a recent talk given by the Boise branch of the the International Rescue Committee) has recently singled out Boise as one of the better places to send refugees for resettlement. We now have three such agencies in the area, and over the years we've built up quite a strong Bosnian community, for instance. More recently you can see Sudanese women walking the streets in their bright African print, and I believe we received a group of Somalians this past fall.

More to the topic, I know for a fact we've received refugees from Katrina; I worked with a couple last year who were forced to quit school and move up here with family. And I know that there are at least two families in my building who were relocated here. I'm not sure if they were with a program or not, but judging by the fact that they moved here without knowing anyone here, I assume that is the case.

Due to a population boom that's been occurring over the past few decades in the Boise area, this kind of xenophobia really isn't uncommon at all. 15-20 years ago it was more about Californians, though. (Discussed here a bit, in a post I did a ways back on good ole Idaho.)

Anyway, it's a good post; I agree these people are nuts. Just thought I needed to reprah-zent.

Kennesaw, GA passed an ordinance requiring each head of household to own and maintain a gun in 1982, after Morton Grove, IL passed a law banning all guns. FWIW, Kennesaw's last homicide was in 1989, and the weapon used was a knife. One gun-control critic attributes a drop of 89% in Kennesaw's residential burglary rate to the law.

Ben K:

See Tim Lambert for some notes pointing out the complexity of the Kennesaw situation, most notably that the burglary figures two and three years before the law were exactly the same as the year after, and that the figures four and five years before were lower than any of the four years after.

Also note that Kennesaw State U. in their FAQ notes that “Kennesaw's crime rate is comparable to any city of the same size.”

Someone should poll the burglers!

But seriously folks; I have a question about these mandatory gun laws. Has one ever been passed in a town where the population is mostly or all non-white? Given recent events, it seems that blacks have the most reasons to worry about agents of the government invading their home, which is what the framers of the constitution were really worried about.

See Gary Kleck, Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America (Social Institutions and Social Change) for the crime numbers in my first note. According to Wiki, Kennesaw is ~16% black and Hispanic.

FWIW, I grew up in a place where no one locked their doors. It was also a place where before you opened the door you damned well knew to announce yourself loudly, 'cause chances were grandma was packing heat.

She made great biscuits too.

It's called forethought. Just because it hasn't happened, doesn't mean it won't. More power to the townfolk - they are taking their security seriously and in their own hands.

The blogger's mindset reminds me that of my fellow Sikhs in Delhi before November 1984, and SIkhs in the US before 9/11. Comfortably smug and like deer in headlights once SHTF.

Oi Gavolt. SukhaJinda - for people in this town to fear invasion by refugees 1,000 miles away is around as rational as for them to fear invasion by the Chinese, Russians or South Africans. As dot said (and I trust her fully on all matters Idaho), it's xenophobia on their part.