Wednesday, 3 November 1999

Arizonans back gun control over ownership, poll finds

http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/LX7371.html
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services

PHOENIX - Arizonans favor greater gun controls over safeguarding the right to own guns, a new survey says.
The poll conducted last month showed that 41 percent of Arizonans thought protecting the ability of individuals to have guns is more important than new restrictions on who can own them.
But 51 percent of those asked saw it the other way, with regulation trumping gun owner rights. The balance was undecided.
Not surprisingly, urban residents were more likely to support new gun control efforts than their rural counterparts. Democrats also were far bigger believers in new restrictions than Republicans or independents.
Gender also played a role: Only 35 percent of women supported protecting gun ownership over gun controls compared with 47 percent of men.
Pollster Earl deBerge of Behavior Research Center said the survey results suggest that Arizona is ``shaking off its long romance with guns and frontier values.'' He also noted it came on the heels of some high-profile shootings.
Still, there remains a hard core of firm believers in the right to bear arms.
Another question in the survey cites a ruling by a California appellate court that gun makers can be held liable if they intentionally market their wares to criminals with, for example, claims that the weapons are fingerprint-resistant. The company was sued by the families of eight people shot to death in a San Francisco law office in 1993.
DeBerge asked if manufacturers should be held liable ``for crimes involving guns they market to criminals.'' Even with that wording, 38 percent of Arizonans said there should be no liability.
The National Rifle Association, which has opposed most gun-control measures at the federal and state levels, did not return repeated calls to its offices.
The survey of 700 adults has a margin of error of 3.8 percent.


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