Gun Control, Gay Issues: O.C. Surprisingly Liberal

Orange County has always been more liberal on social issues than on economic ones, but findings of the latest poll surprised even some political analysts.

According to the Orange County Annual Survey, released Monday by UC Irvine, a strong majority of county residents think the government should have stronger gun control laws and that gays and lesbians should be allowed in the military. Even a slight majority of Republicans agreed with those positions.

But the explanation offered is a relatively simple one--as national attitudes change, Orange County is going along.

“Orange County is becoming more like everywhere else, more diverse, more cosmopolitan, more like the rest of California,” said Mark Baldassare, a UCI professor of urban and regional planning and co-director of the poll.

The survey found that 63% of county residents think there should be stronger gun control laws and that 62% believe gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the armed forces. Support was lower among Republicans, but still constituted a majority.

Statewide, 62% support stronger gun laws and 68% believe gays should be allowed in the military.

Fred Smoller, director of the Ludie and David C. Henley Social Sciences Research Lab at Chapman University, found the Republican support for gays in the military a demonstration of the libertarian strain that runs through the county.

“The thinking that says I don’t want government saying how I should run my business is the same one that sees sexuality as part of the private realm,” he said. “Society is coming to a consensus that this is just not one worth fighting about.”

Frank Ricchiazza, former president of the Orange County chapter of the Log Cabin Club, made up of gay Republicans, said the polls didn’t surprise him. He said, for example, that the Veterans of Foreign Wars has asked him to join. “Some of these guys are part of the right wing of right wings, but being gay isn’t an issue,” he said.

The Orange County libertarianism also was evident on the issue of abortion, where 65% of those polled supported a woman’s right to choose.

The poll also found that 62% of Orange County residents supported stricter environmental laws and 58% think immigrants benefit the state.

Baldassare found the support for stronger gun laws the most surprising, because it goes against the libertarian view of keeping government out of personal decisions.

He said it reflects the view that random violence is related to the availability of guns. The poll found that residents see crime as the county’s most important problem.

“People see the cause as the proliferation of guns,” he said.

Analysts said support for gun control has increased nationally as a result of the Columbine, Colo., massacre last year and the random shootings around the country that have followed, including the one at the Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills.

Luis Tolley, Western director of Handgun Control in Los Angeles, said polls for his group show the Columbine shootings made gun control a much more urgent concern among voters, pushing it into the top tier of issues people are most concerned about.

He also said Orange County attitudes are similar to those found in other conservative areas. “The disconnect is between the majority of people and our elected officials,” he said.

Robert J. Spitzer, a political science professor at the State University of New York in Cortland, and author of The Politics of Gun Control, said Columbine and other shootings have caused people to worry more about their children.

“There’s a fear of sending kids to school and they might not come back because some deranged person may go berserk,” he said.

But Steve Helsley, a consultant for the National Rifle Assn. in Sacramento, said the problem is that most people don’t understand the gun control issue.

“There is a perception that gun laws are inadequate to keep them out of the hands of criminals,” he said. “In large part that is true because the existing laws are not enforced. We’ve got so many laws, law enforcement can’t keep track of them, and the end result is they’re not used.”

The survey was conducted May 3-14 and included telephone interviews in English and Spanish with 1,005 adults. The sampling error is plus or minus 3%. That means the chances are 95 out of 100 that the poll results will be within 3 percentage points if all residents of the county were surveyed.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Attitude Adjustment

As Orange County becomes more like the rest of the state, the attitudes of its residents reflect that diversity, especially on social issues, according to the Orange County Annual Survey.