City Council members in Nelson, Ga., voted unanimously to require heads of households to own guns and ammunition to “provide for the emergency management of the city” and “protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants.” The ordinance has sparked national media attention — and a local debate.

Jackie Jarrett, a member of the Nelson City Council who voted in favor of the gun rule, and Lamar Kellett, a former chair of the Nelson Planning Commission who opposes it, argued the development on “Democracy Now!”

“[Would you] rather rob somebody in New York, where they got strict gun laws or you can’t own one — if you do, just got to have three shells for it? Or do you want to come to Nelson and try to rob somebody, because, you know, they’ve got a weapon on the other side of that door?” Jarrett asks.

Kellett disagrees: “The Second Amendment gives you the right to bear arms. And I feel like an individual certainly has the right to not bear arms,” he says.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

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