Kennesaw, Georgia

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Kennesaw City Hall and springs

Kennesaw is a city in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 21,675 at the 2000 census. Census Estimates of 2005 indicate a population of 30,522. The original name for the town was Big Shanty, and it is now considered a suburb of Atlanta.

During the American Civil War, Kennesaw was the site of major fighting in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, part of the larger Battle of Atlanta. Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park [1] now contains many of these historic areas, though much of this land has been developed, and some buried artifacts taken by people with metal detectors. Kennesaw Mountain (as well as conjoined Little Kennesaw Mountain) is included in the park, and its summit is the highest point in the Atlanta metro area, at an elevation of 1808 feet (551 meters) above sea level.Weather Channel personalities Sharon Resultan and Mike Bettes reside there.

Kennesaw State University [2] is located just east of the city limits, and uses the silhouette of the two mountains as its logo. The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History [3] is located downtown, next to the railroad tracks on Cherokee Street, just off of Main Street (Old U.S. 41). The museum is the current preservation and display location for The General, the locomotive that played the key role in the Great Locomotive Chase. The area around Kennesaw is also a major retail hub with a major regional mall, Town Center Mall, numerous restaurants and most major chain stores located along Barrett Parkway southeast of the city.

Kennesaw has the nickname of "Gun Town, USA" due to a city ordinance passed in 1982 [Sec 34-1a] that requires every head of household to maintain a firearm with ammunition. It was passed partly in response to a 1981 handgun ban in Morton Grove, Illinois. Kennesaw's law was amended in 1983 to exempt those who conscientiously object to owning a firearm, convicted felons, those who cannot afford a firearm, and those with a mental or physical disability that would prevent them from owning a firearm. It mentions no penalty for its violation. According to the Kennesaw Historical Society, no one has ever been charged under the law.

Criminologist and gun-control critic Gary Kleck attributes a drop of 89% in the residential burglary rate to the law (Kleck, 1991), and Kennesaw is often cited by advocates of gun ownership as evidence that gun ownership deters crime (see, for instance, this 2004 sheet of talking points from the Gun Owners Foundation). Other criminologists dispute the 89% figure, using the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting data, and find instead a small, statistically insignificant increase in burglaries after the law was passed (McDowall, Wiersema and Loftin, 1989; McDowall, Lizotte and Wiersema, 1991).

The city's official website is at http://www.kennesaw-ga.gov.

1 Geography
2 Demographics
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Geography

Kennesaw is located at 34°1′31″N, 84°36′57″W (34.025183, -84.615875)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 22.0 km² (8.5 mi²). 21.9 km² (8.4 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.82%) is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 21,675 people, 8,099 households, and 5,782 families residing in the city. The population density was 991.6/km² (2,568.3/mi²). There were 8,670 housing units at an average density of 396.6/km² (1,027.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 81.97% White, 9.90% African American, 0.22% Native American, 2.91% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 2.54% from other races, and 2.45% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.20% of the population.

There were 8,099 households out of which 40.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.7% were married couples living together, 10.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.6% were non-families. 22.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.12.

In the city the population was spread out with 27.7% under the age of 18, 7.3% from 18 to 24, 42.1% from 25 to 44, 17.1% from 45 to 64, and 5.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $60,404 and the median income for a family was $67,778. Males had a median income of $45,253 versus $33,660 for females. The per capita income for the city was $24,757. About 3.1% of families and 4.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.8% of those under age 18 and 12.5% of those age 65 or over.

Big Shanty and Kennesaw are two elementary schools in Kennesaw. Over 85% of the students attending those schools live in Legacy Park, a 117-acre TownPark planned community.

[edit] References

Kennesaw Historical Society
Text of the Morton Grove handgun ban, from the Morton Grove Public Library's website (Section 6-2 of the Village Code of Morton Grove Illinois 1984)
Gary Kleck. Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America. (Aldine de Gruyter, 1991). ISBN 0-202-30419-1
David McDowall, Brian Wiersema and Colin Loftin. (1989). "Did Mandatory firearm ownership in Kennesaw really prevent burglaries?" Sociology and Social Research 74:48-51.
David McDowall, Alan J. Lizotte and Brian Wiersema. (1991). "General Deterrence Through Civilian Gun Ownership: An Evaluation of the Quasi-Experimental Evidence," Criminology 29:4 (November): 541-559.