Aug. 21, 2000
WASHINGTON (AP) _ A huge majority of high school students favors gun-control measures such as licensing and mandatory trigger locks, according to a survey released Monday that finds guns and related violence prominent in the lives of teens.
About nine out of 10 students said they favored completing a required safety course and obtaining a license before buying a handgun. The same number favored criminal background checks. And 96 percent supported registering the weapons when purchased, so they could be traced if necessary, said Dennis Gilbert, a sociology professor at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., who designed the survey with his students.
"American high school students have a shockingly high level of exposure to guns and gun violence," Gilbert said in an interview. He said the study is the first to question a national sample of high school students on gun issues.
A quarter of the students said they or someone close to them had been shot in a situation unrelated to military combat. That proportion rose to nearly half for students living in cities with populations greater than half a million.
One junior at an urban high school in the Midwest said a close friend had been shot dead while playing basketball, the study said. Others reported hunting accidents and other firearm mishaps.
Rose Zefferino, 17, a high school senior from Martinsville, N.J., said she hasn't experienced gun-related violence, but the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado and other schools inspired her to start a gun-control awareness campaign at her school.
"We need to learn about ways to prevent these things before they happen," said Zefferino, who didn't participate in the study.
The polling firm Zogby International conducted the nationwide telephone survey during three days in June by calling 1,005 high school sophomores, juniors and seniors.
National Rifle Association spokeswoman Trish Gregory criticized the poll for not asking questions about existing regulations given in previous adult surveys.
"Many of these students may not be aware of the fact that there are already tens of thousands of gun laws on the books in the United States," she said. "If that information had been included with the questions we may have seen very different results."
Students in the East and South were most likely to support gun control, followed by those in the West and Midwest, the poll found.
While four out of five students said the government should keep guns away from criminals even if it becomes harder for everyone else to buy them, the same number said Americans have a constitutional right to own firearms.
Gilbert said the students were more likely than adults to support both increased regulation and the right to own a gun.
"Maybe in their world there's just a lot more guns around, and it seems more compelling to them," he said.
Nearly half the students said they thought it would be easy for someone their age to get a gun in their neighborhood, but only 6 percent described their schools as unsafe.
The survey also found:
- _More than 80 percent of high school students have discussed gun control in school, at home or with friends.
- _Of girls questioned, 79 percent favored stricter gun laws, compared with 52 percent of boys. Girls also were more likely to have become involved in gun-control activities.
The Alliance for Justice, a pro-gun control coalition of advocacy groups perhaps best known for monitoring federal judicial nominations, released the study as part of a campaign against gun violence.
The poll, financed by Hamilton College's Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center, had an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
APTV 08-21-00 1312MDT
