Georgia's gun culture as a work of science fiction
Take the city of Kennesaw, which officially requires heads of households to own a gun.
Add a pinch of Claxton, the south Georgia town famous for its annual roundup of serpents, and perhaps a dash of sawdust Pentecostalism.
Stir thoroughly in the head of a science-fiction writer appalled by his experience with gun politics in the state Capitol, and the result is a just-published novelette called “Rattlesnakes and Men,” the tale of a Georgia community that requires homeowners to own pit vipers for self-protection.
“Open-carry” enthusiasts stride through Wriggly, Ga., with serpents in their belt loops. A pediatrician is nearly lynched for suggesting that rattlesnakes in the home might be the cause of a child’s anxiety. And statistics of accidental snake-bites are hushed up by a group that just happens to bear the initials “NRA.”
About the Author
Jim Galloway, the newspaper’s former political columnist, was a writer and editor at the AJC for four decades.
