-Caveat Lector- http://www.denverpost.com/news/news1226g.htm Virgin, Utah: Where every household must have a gun By Susan Greene Denver Post National Writer Dec. 26, 2000- VIRGIN, Utah - Darcey Spendlove credits her peace of mind to the 13 guns she and her husband keep at their ranch home in this remote southwestern Utah hamlet. That's why the 25-year-old councilwoman supported an ordinance in June requiring all townsfolk to own firearms so they, too, can enjoy that sense of safety. "It's like a security blanket that I could whip out and use whenever I need to," Spendlove said of her favorite gun, the .243-caliber rifle her parents gave her on her 16th birthday. "Everyone should experience the freedom of knowing you can protect yourself. It's probably the greatest right we have as Americans." The ordinance states, "In order to provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the town and its inhabitants, every household residing in the Virgin Town limits is required to maintain a firearm, together with ammunition therefor." The measure has brought worldwide attention to this 318-resident community, which previously was known mainly for the locally made beef jerky sold along state Highway 9 - the road to Zion National Park. Inspiration for the ordinance stemmed partly from the April 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, which triggered a national debate about firearm sales and moves in several states toward stricter background checks on gun buyers. Mayor Jay Lee, Spendlove's colleague on the town council, bristled at such gun- control efforts and decided, at least in Virgin, it was time to take action. "I just couldn't sit back and watch the government and the United Nations take away our freedom to protect ourselves from One World Order," said Lee, a hardware store manager, scoutmaster and father of eight. "I bet if I were to go to each of those Columbine parents, they would say they wished a fast-acting teacher with a gun was there to protect their kids." Lee modeled his bill after the only other measure of its kind in the nation - an 18-year-old ordinance in Kennesaw, Ga., where city officials boast that residential burglaries have dropped 89 percent. Virgin's version exempts felons, residents bound by restraining orders, those with physical and mental disabilities and anyone who refuses to own a gun for religious and philosophical reasons. Residents who can't afford guns also are exempt. In other words, the ordinance isn't really enforceable. "I put in the word "required' because it wouldn't be an ordinance without it," Lee said. "But I guess we can't force people to comply. It's not like we're out penalizing people who don't own guns." The Virgin native, who grew up shooting rabbits from the back of his dad's pickup truck, says guns are a part of the town's culture - a way of life threatened by gun control. Further, he notes that local anti-government sentiment has grown with recent federal requirements for desert tortoise conservation and with the abrupt ban on mining and grazing caused by President Clinton's 1996 designation of the nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. And so, Lee says, his ordinance is more a political statement than a call to arms. "The day is coming when the government could come and take our firearms. This way, we can hold up our ordinance and say we're required by law to have guns and there's nothing the state or feds can do about it," the mayor said. Lee's Second Amendment fervor persuaded Spendlove and two other council members to support his ordinance. "I've never been a fanatic about guns, but Mayor Lee really got me thinking," Spendlove said. Councilman Kenneth Cornelius cast the lone dissenting vote on grounds that the ordinance "has no teeth and is probably illegal." Cornelius worries the measure will lure "gun freaks" to Virgin. Since it took effect six months ago, he said the town clerk has "received e-mails and inquiries from people who want to move here for gun reasons." "It's slightly embarrassing," he said of the ordinance. "I don't want to become a mecca, a haven for gun nuts. This town is really opening itself up for a lot of trouble by trying to do this. It scares me." Cornelius, who works for a nearby building contractor, lambasted Lee for spreading paranoia throughout town. "It's kind of scary (to have) a government entity worrying about a government entity coming to take you over," he said. "The mayor gets off on some things like that and sometimes go astray." Lee, for his part, dismissed his colleague's barbs as "nonsense." He noted that Cornelius was the subject of Virgin's last legal run-in - a domestic dispute for which the councilman pleaded guilty to destroying property. "My wife and I were having problems," Cornelius acknowledged. "I guess in a small town like this, everybody knows everybody else's business." -- The unconscious democracy of America is a very fine thing. It is a true and deep and instinctive assumption of the equality of citizens, which even voting and elections have not destroyed. - What I Saw In America, 1922 <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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