The same year the gun law took effect, Mr Weatherby, the church groundskeeper, was born.
He recalled a childhood where his dad would half-jokingly tell him: “I don’t care if you don’t like guns, it’s the law.”
“I was taught that if you’re a man, you’ve got to own a gun,” he said.
Now 42, he was 12 years old the first time he fired a weapon.
“I almost dropped it because it scared me so bad,” he said.
Mr Weatherby owned over 20 guns at one point but said now he doesn’t own any. He sold them over the years – including the one his dad left him when he died in 2005 – to overcome hard times.
“I needed gas more than guns,” he said.
One place he could’ve gone to sell his firearms is the Deercreek Gun Shop located on Kennesaw’s Main Street.
James Rabun, 36, has been working at the gun store ever since he graduated high school.
It’s the family business, he said, opened by his dad and grandad, both of whom can still be found there today; his dad in the back restoring firearms, his grandad in the front relaxing in a rocking chair.
For obvious reasons, Mr Rabun is a fan of Kennesaw’s gun law. It’s good for business.
“The cool thing about firearms”, he said with earnest enthusiasm, “is that people buy them for self-defence, but a lot of people like them like artwork or like bitcoin – things of scarcity.”
Among the dozens and dozens of weapons hanging on the wall for sale are double barrel black powder shotguns – akin to a musket – and a few “they-don’t-make-these-anymore” Winchester rifles from the 1800s.
