On Columbine anniversary, a nation divided over guns

A quarter century after a tragic school shooting in Columbine, Colorado, shook the nation, America is as awash in guns as ever, and as divided over them, too.

Here in Kennesaw, Georgia, owning guns is literally a rite of citizenship. 

When Johnny Downs’ wife frets about possible societal unrest and crime, he tells her, don’t worry. “I have quite the arsenal myself,” says Mr. Downs, a retiree. “I tell her, ‘OK, I’ll go dust off the bullets.’”

Kennesaw is one of only a few towns in the United States where gun ownership is mandatory for every household by law. And as Second Amendment gun rights protections have grown stronger over the past two decades, Georgia is among a growing number of states that have moved to allow permitless carry for lawful owners. Even in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest,