Under the Gun : Poll Shows Increasing Fear of Firearm-Related Crime in County

Worried about gangs, drugs and a rising tide of gun-related violence, one in five people in Orange County feel unsafe in their communities, while more than a third of the population has made some change in lifestyle because of crime, according to a new Los Angeles Times Poll.

While most people still feel secure, the fear factor--that percentage of citizens who believe they are fairly unsafe to very unsafe where they live--stands at 19% in Orange County, significantly lower than the 42% who voice that view in Los Angeles.

But the proportion who feel unsafe in Orange County is significantly greater--28%--among low-income families and in neighborhoods where ethnic minorities constitute a majority of residents.

“Assuming the figures are correct, I am concerned about it,” said Fullerton Police Chief Philip A. Goehring, head of the Chiefs and Sheriffs Assn. of Orange County. “This tells me that people need to feel assured about the capability and readiness of their police departments. We need to try to reach people on this and try to reduce this number.”

Goehring spoke with the caveat that his views do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other top law enforcement officials who are members of the chiefs’ association.

The Times survey, which was conducted April 9-15 under the supervision of poll director John Brennan, is one of the first comprehensive assessments of regional experiences and opinions related to crime, firearms and gun control.

Over six days, The Times interviewed 2,619 adults in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties. Eight hundred and seventy-eight were gun owners; 1,741 were not.

In Orange County, 756 residents were queried, including 228 who owned guns and 528 who didn’t. The margin of error for the entire Orange County sample is plus or minus four percentage points.

The survey was conducted before rioting broke out in Los Angeles and other cities after the acquittals in the trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating Rodney G. King after a chase.

Poll results indicate that the fear of crime, particularly gun-related violence, is widespread across Southern California and has had profound impacts on the way many people live.

Citizens report being more cautious. Some of those sampled say they no longer go out at night to socialize. Others avoid certain areas or streets more than they used to, while many people are contemplating the purchase of a firearm for protection. Still others admit that they carry a loaded gun on their person or in their cars, some knowing it is illegal to do so.

And, at the same time most people in Orange County say they favor tougher gun control, they own or have access to more firearms than people in surrounding counties, even Los Angeles, where more than two in every five say they feel unsafe in their community.

“I have been a non-gun person,” said Lance Ty Morris, 38, of Buena Park, who participated in the Times poll. “Now my friends and I are thinking about arming ourselves. I think, in response to the Los Angeles riot, that the police have demonstrated they can’t protect you. We now need a self-protection mentality.”

Orange County residents, as well as other Southern Californians, say that gangs, crime and drugs are the biggest problems facing their communities today. The fear that gangs and crime engender is greater, though, in neighboring Los Angeles.

Of those surveyed, gang-related shootings top the list of woes they find the most troubling, whether they live in downtown Los Angeles or in the heart of suburban Orange County.

Poll statistics show that 44% of the residents in Orange County think gangs, crime and drugs are the worst problems, with 20% ranking gangs as their top concern. In Los Angeles, those statistics are 55% and 30%, respectively. Throughout Southern California, 53% rate gangs, crime and drugs as the biggest problems.

“With gangs, people feel vulnerable,” said Anaheim Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy, whose city has been grappling with a gang problem of its own. “They see the graffiti and the indiscriminate shootings. It leaves them thinking they may be the victim of a shooting unintentionally. All of a sudden they feel their personal safety is in jeopardy.”

In stark contrast to the enormous expressions of concern about crime, less than 10% of those polled across the region mentioned other social ills, such as declining educational achievement, threats to the environment, inadequate low-cost housing or rising unemployment when asked what were the most important problems facing their communities today.

Top-ranking law enforcement officials in the county cautioned that the public perception about the severity of crime in their communities does not always reflect reality. Some people, they said, simply worry about their safety although they have never been victims and live in good neighborhoods.

Perhaps no better example of this occurred during the first night of the Los Angeles riot. In Santa Ana, the police communications center could not handle a deluge of unfounded reports from the public about disturbances. Anaheim police received more than 500 similar calls, 300 of them on the 911 emergency line. The strife never spread to Orange County. Which is not to say that it couldn’t.

“Urban problems are coming here that we never had before,” said Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters. “People came here 20 years ago to escape these things, now they are catching up to us. Citizens don’t want to see the county of 10 to 20 years ago disintegrate. It’s a very important issue to them.”

Walters said, however, that there is a huge gap sometimes between perception and reality that has been fostered by the widespread availability of information in the media and elsewhere, especially about crime.

“What concerns me is their reaction to those perceptions,” Molloy said. “Are more people arming themselves and taking the law into their own hands? If you get too many of these things, just like crime, you will begin to erode the quality of life.”

But those surveyed believe that lawlessness, not the precautions they take, is a major factor undermining their safety, freedom and peace of mind. At least half--locally, regionally and in Los Angeles--think that crimes involving firearms are definitely on the increase. Statistics appear to bear this out.

According to the latest figures available from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the number of slayings with a firearm has jumped from 71 in 1985 to 118 in 1990.

California Department of Justice statistics show that 659 out of 4,167 aggravated assaults reported in the county in 1985 involved firearms. Five years later, 1,189 assaults out of 6,824 involved a gun.

In addition, the data shows that the number of reported robberies involving a firearm also increased slightly from 1985 to 1990.

Possibly as a result of steady increases in fatal and nonfatal shootings, 40% of those in Orange County, 52% in Los Angeles and 46% in Southern California say their concern about gun-related crime has prompted changes in their lifestyle, from simply being more cautious on the streets at night to moving out of town.

Of those people who made a change--30% to 32% in all areas--about a third say they have become more cautious about what they do. A 10th of the Orange County sample and a fifth in Los Angeles say they no longer go out socially at night. Across the region, another 10% say they are afraid to take walks they used to take.

About 25% in Orange County and 44% in Los Angeles say there are some places they simply avoid out of fear they might be shot or robbed at gunpoint. Similarly, a fifth of those surveyed in Orange County and a third in Los Angeles say there are roads and highways they have stopped traveling on.

Perhaps more striking, half the residents in Los Angeles County and 45% in Orange County say their concern about gun-related crime was a factor in their decision on where to live.

“We used to live in Santa Ana. We loved the house, the neighborhood and everything,” said Vickie Rayburn, 36, now of Garden Grove. “We moved because of the drive-by shootings. Now I won’t take certain bus routes. We don’t even go to automatic teller machines after certain hours of the evening. The risk is just not worth the money you get out of them.”

About one in six residents in Los Angeles County and one in 12 in Orange County say that someone in their household has been the victim of a violent crime involving a firearm in the past two years. Four percent in Orange County and 7% in Los Angeles County reported that they have been victims themselves.

About one in six in Orange County and across the region have seen someone threatening others with a firearm or firing one from a moving vehicle in Southern California. In Los Angeles County, the number is roughly the same.

A sizable portion of those surveyed blame all this to a certain degree on the widespread availability of firearms. In Orange County, three in 10 blame the ease with which a gun can be obtained. In Los Angeles, the number is almost half. That opinion is more widely held among those earning less than $30,000 a year and living in predominantly minority communities.

The Times poll also indicated that 4% of the sample in Orange County and Southern California reported that a household member had been raped in the past 24 months. The figure is 7% in black households.

Rape has long been considered one of the most underreported crimes in America, and the poll results suggest that the incidence of rape is much higher than the number reported to law enforcement in Orange County.

“I’m surprised the number is that high. We’ve done a lot of work to get people to report that,” said Santa Ana Police Chief Walters. “But a lot of rapes are committed by someone the victim knows and they are reluctant to report it. And, with the court system, the potential for embarrassment, and media attention, they (the victims) just want it to go away.”

Faced with what they perceive to be a growing crime problem, 63% of those surveyed in Orange County and 71% in Los Angeles County believe that gun control laws should be more strict. Slightly less than half the gun owners in Orange County think so, compared to almost three out of every four who do not own a gun.

But 61% in Orange County and 52% in Los Angeles County think the average citizen should be allowed to own a firearm, and a majority regionally are at least somewhat concerned that gun controls will excessively limit the constitutional right to own a gun.

Yet more than half of those polled in Orange County and across Southern California think that stronger gun laws would be an effective way to reduce violent crime in their neighborhoods.

Over the years, an emotional debate has surrounded a variety of gun control measures proposed and adopted across the nation. They have ranged from requiring guns to be registered with police, background checks for firearms buyers, bans on assault rifles and restrictions on handguns available by mail order, the so-called “Saturday night specials.”

While some of those interviewed believe gun controls might stop some crimes, others think new restrictions would be ineffective compared to tougher penalties and better enforcement of current laws.

“The Legislature passes some 30 gun-related measures a year. It’s so stupid. Crooks don’t buy guns in gun stores,” said one 20-year veteran of local law enforcement, who participated in the poll but requested anonymity. “Waiting periods and registration is all a joke. What we need to think about are severe sanctions and dealing with gun-related crimes using the harshest means possible.”

But gun control, longer sentences and better law enforcement are not enough apparently. The Times poll shows that almost one out of every five Orange County residents now think they might buy a firearm, with the leading reason being protection.

Already, 28% of county residents own a gun, and 36% say they have access to a firearm in their home or garage--8% more than in Los Angeles where almost twice as many people are concerned about crime. About one in five people now own a gun in Los Angeles County. Throughout Southern California, 29% say they have access to a gun in their home or garage.

Of current gun owners in Orange County, 7% say they have used a gun for self defense in deterring burglars, car thieves or potential assailants. Only 1% report having fired their weapons to protect themselves, family or friends. No one said they hit their target.

Overall, 11% of Orange County gun owners say they occasionally, frequently or always carry a concealed weapon in public. The figure is about the same in Los Angeles. Fourteen percent say that they keep a loaded firearm in their cars, while in Los Angeles 18% report that they did so.

“This doesn’t surprise me. We take guns off people all the time,” Molloy said. “It is a real concern. People don’t think about the ramifications of using their gun, when they can legally fire it and what the civil liabilities are.”

Only 7% of those polled in Orange County said they had a permit to carry a concealed weapon. It is a misdemeanor to carry a concealed firearm without a permit or have a gun in the passenger compartment of a vehicle.

“With my family’s safety at stake, I’d just as soon risk a misdemeanor than death, injury or property damage,” said Robert, 49, of Fullerton, who participated in the Times poll and spoke on the condition that his last name not be used.

The Fear Factor

Most Orange County residents favor stricter gun control laws and half think that gun-related crimes have increased. A look at perceptions versus reality, and how perceptions in Orange County differ from Los Angeles County:

THE PERCEPTIONS

When it comes to the threat of crime, how safe do you feel in your community?

Orange County Los Angeles County Very safe 18% 9% Fairly safe 63% 49% Fairly unsafe 14% 28% Very unsafe 5% 14%

In the past few years, do you think that gun-related crimes such as shootings and holdups in your area have increased, decreased or stayed about the same?

Orange County Los Angeles County Increased 50% 60% Decreased 5% 3% Stayed about the same 38% 30% Not sure 7% 7%

What is your view on gun control laws in California?

Orange County Los Angeles County Should be more strict 63% 71% Should be less strict 5% 6% They’re about right 25% 16% Not sure 7% 7%

How effective would stronger laws restricting the sale and possession of firearms be in reducing the amount of violent crime in your community?

Orange County Los Angeles County Very effective 15% 25% Somewhat effective 40% 33% Not too effective 15% 19% Not effective at all 23% 16% Not sure 7% 7%

The Reality

A statistical profile of gun-related incidents in O. C.:

Homicides

Year Total By gunshot % By gunshot 1990 174 118 67.8 1989 161 118 73.3 1988 129 76 58.9 1987 98 61 62.2 1986 112 66 58.9 1985 131 71 54.2

Armed robberies 1990: 1,862 Aggravated assaults ( by firearm ) 1990: 1,189 Suicides ( by gunshot ) 1990: 146 Source: Times Poll, Orange County coroner’s office, California Department of Justice

Researched by JANICE JONES / Los Angeles Times

The Gun Poll

Following are results of selected questions asked of 2,619 adults in six counties in Southern California, including 878 gun owners. The Times Poll was conducted April 9-15.

In the last two years, in Southern California, has anyone in your household been the victim of a crime or an act of violence that involved a firearm, or not?

Other L.A. County Orange County Counties* Region Victims 15% 8% 11% 13% Non-victims 84 92 89 87

If a victim, of what crime? (Two answers accepted)

Other L.A. County Orange County Counties* Region Murder 1% -- 1% 1% Rape or attempted rape 4 4% 3 4 Assault 5 1 3 4 Robbery 3 2 3 3 Burglary 2 -- 1 1

In the past two years, in Southern California, have you personally witnessed a crime or an act of violence that involved a firearm, or not?

Other L.A. County Orange County Counties* Region Have 14% 11% 12% 13% Have not 86 89 88 87

How often do gun-related crimes occur in your community: frequently, occasionally, rarely or never?

Other L.A. County Orange County Counties* Region Frequently 29% 18% 36% 29% Occasionally 39 40 33 37 Rarely 24 30 23 25 Never 3 6 4 4 Don’t know 5 6 4 5

Because of the fear of gun-related crime, have you made major changes, minor changes or no changes in the way you live?

Other L.A. County Orange County Counties* Region Major 18% 9% 12% 14% Minor 34 31 30 32 No Change 48 59 57 53 Don’t know -- 1 1 1