Gun Laws Backed in Orange County Poll : Opinion: Despite area’s conservatism, majority favor liberal position of stricter controls because of a fear of violent crime, a UC Irvine survey shows.

An overwhelming majority of Orange County residents favor tougher gun control laws to combat violent crime, the most serious concern among local adults, according to a public opinion survey released Monday.

Concern over the spreading threat of gun violence has prompted county residents, who typically are more conservative than most Californians, to take a more liberal position on gun control, said UC Irvine Prof. Mark Baldassare, who conducted the poll for the university’s School of Social Ecology.

Two-thirds of county residents said they favor stricter gun control, with almost 50% strongly supporting such a policy, according to the 1994 Orange County Annual Survey.

The UCI poll of 1,000 adult residents, which has a margin of error of 3%, also found that 44% said they were afraid of becoming crime victims.

“With 44% of Orange County residents saying they’re fearful of becoming a crime victim, there is a growing sense here that the people who have the guns are the wrong people,” Baldassare said.

The study suggests that Orange County residents support gun control somewhat more than other Americans, said Baldassare, who noted that a benchmark national poll by the Gallup organization found that 60%--fewer than two out of three Americans--favored gun control in 1989.

The survey, which was conducted Aug. 19-29, showed that fear of becoming a crime victim is affecting the way people live in Orange County, discouraging many residents from venturing out of their homes to beaches, malls and even movie theaters.

“In this respect, Orange County residents are starting to act more like urbanites and less like suburbanites,” Baldassare said.

About four in 10 Orange County residents said fear of crime keeps them from enjoying the county’s public parks or beaches, while one-third said they are afraid to go shopping for fear of becoming a crime statistic. One-fourth said they are afraid to go to the movies.

Although most Orange County residents--53%--continue to have confidence in police to protect them from crime, three out of four said they have little or no confidence in the courts to convict and sentence criminals, Baldassare said.

This is the second consecutive year that crime has emerged as the biggest concern of those polled in the annual UCI survey.

Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Martini said residents’ fears of crime are not exaggerated. In areas patrolled by sheriff’s deputies, robberies have increased 5% thus far in 1994 compared to all of 1993, while the number of rapes reported so far this year totals 85, compared to 70 for all of last year, he said.

“I don’t think it’s an unrealistic fear,” Martini said. “The county is becoming more densely populated, and that brings more criminal activity. Unfortunately, we’re seeing more flagrant acts of violence here.”

The most recent report from the California attorney general’s office said violent crime increased in Orange County’s eight largest cities and unincorporated areas during the first six months of 1994, continuing a trend of rising violence that stretches back more than a decade.

In Santa Ana, for example, murders occurred at a record pace during the first six months of 1994, while Anaheim, Fullerton, Huntington Beach and Orange reported increases in the number of homicides. A decrease in property crimes, however, caused the overall rate of serious crime to decline slightly in the eight cities and unincorporated areas.

While violent crime overall appears to be increasing in Orange County, national crime statistics show that the violent crime rate across the United States has remained fairly constant over the past 20 years, and has actually decreased slightly since 1982, according to U.S. Department of Justice figures.

The poll revealed that 31% of respondents thought crime was Orange County’s most serious problem, while 18% said jobs and the economy were the most important, and 16% said immigration was the most serious issue.