Small town, big issue

Gun ownership law draws legal challenge

Nanette Cooper stands on the front porch of the home she shares with her husband, Lawrence Cooper, in Nelson, Ga. The couple owns several guns and supports a recent city law requiring every head of household to own a gun and ammunition.

ATLANTA — A tiny Georgia city and a national gun control group are facing off in a legal battle over a city ordinance requiring gun ownership, with the constitutionality of the law and broader messages about gun rights taking center stage.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in May filed a federal lawsuit against Nelson, a city of roughly 1,300 residents about 50 miles north of Atlanta, saying a recently adopted ordinance requiring heads of household to own a gun and ammunition is unconstitutional.

“We definitely think this law is misguided and unconstitutional in Nelson and anywhere else where it’s passed,” lawyer Jonathan Lowy of the Washington-based Brady Center said in a recent interview.

“But it’s also important to send a message to other jurisdictions around the country that might be in- clined to pass similar misguided, unconstitutional laws,” Lowy said.

The Nelson City Council adopted the Family Protection Ordinance on April 1.

The measure requires every head of household to own a gun and ammunition to “provide for the emergency management of the city” and to “provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants.”

The ordinance exempts convicted felons, those who can’t afford a gun and those who suffer from certain physical or mental disabilities, as well as anyone who conscientiously objects to owning guns because of their beliefs or religious doctrine.

City leaders and the police chief, who’s the only police officer in town, said during the meeting when the ordinance was passed that they had no intention of enforcing it.

Instead, it was meant to warn would-be burglars and to send a message to the federal government about gun ownership.

“I don’t think there was ever any intention of the city of Nelson to enforce the ordinance,” David Archer, a lawyer for the city, said.

“I think it was a political statement that they made.”

City Manager Brandy Edwards confirmed that no one has been charged under the ordinance.

The law’s sponsor, Councilman Duane Cronic, said at the time that he believed the ordinance would make the city safer, likening it to signs warning of alarm systems that people put in their yards.

And at a time when President Barack Obama and some states were pushing for more restrictive gun laws after the Connecticut elementary school massacre in December, Nelson was showing its support for the right to bear arms.

City officials referred all questions on the lawsuit to Archer, who said he was hired by the city’s insurance company to defend Nelson against the lawsuit.

GeorgiaCarry.Org, a group that seeks to protect the rights of its members to own guns, has filed court papers seeking to join the legal fight in support of Nelson.