Gun Control, Hate Crimes

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 5, 1999 | by August Gribbin

Americans favor harsher penalties for hate crimes and stricter gun-control laws.

CNN-Gallup-USA Today researchers recently tested public opinion on the subjects of guns and hate crimes. In one poll, 86 percent of 1,014 adults surveyed say they are not worried about being the "victim of a hate crime." The same number do not "personally know anyone ... capable of committing a hate crime."

Respondents were asked their reaction to special laws adopted by a number of states that "provide harsher penalties for crimes motivated by hate of certain groups than the penalties for the same crimes if they are not motivated by this kind of hate." Seventy percent say they favor harsher penalties for hate-motivated crimes, but 25 percent do not.

A CNN-Gallup-USA Today poll of 1,054 adults found that a little more than a third -- 36 percent -- have a gun in their home. Among gun owners, 67 percent have rifles, 61 percent have handguns or pistols and 59 percent have shotguns. (The figures total more than 100 percent because many owners have several types of guns.)

Just 9 percent believe laws regulating the sale of firearms should be "less strict," while 60 percent favor stricter controls and 29 percent are satisfied with current laws. Even more respondents -- 68 percent -- favor stricter regulation of handguns, the firearm most commonly employed in crimes. Six percent say they want "less strict" regulation; 25 percent are content with current laws.

By 64 percent to 34 percent, people overwhelmingly reject the notion of banning "possession of handguns except by police and other authorized persons." Seventy-nine percent to 19 percent, they favor laws requiring "registration of all handguns."

Americans are more evenly split on the issue of "minor restriction," such as a five-day waiting period, as opposed to major restrictions on certain classes of weapons, including semiautomatic rifles. Thirty-seven percent of those polled support minor restrictions, while 36 percent favor major restrictions. Because the margin of error in the survey was plus or minus 3 percentage points, the two responses constitute a statistical deadlock.

Just 5 percent say they would like "no restrictions at all" while 18 percent would ban all guns "except for authorized persons."

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Presbyterians in New York have found a way for pastors conducting same-sex marriages to circumvent church statutes against the practice -- just don't call it marriage.

Because the rules in the Presbyterian Church (USA) ban only homosexual "marriage," the Hudson River Presbytery, a local church region, voted 107 to 35 to affirm "the freedom of any [congregation] to allow its ministers to perform ceremonies of holy union between persons of the same gender." According to the presbytery, its decision "reflects our understanding at this time that these ceremonies do not constitute marriage as defined by the Book of Order" -- that is, marriage as "a civil contract between a woman and a man."

"As long as you don't consider it a marriage, there is no violation," says Jerry Van Marter, a church spokesman with the Presbyterian News Service. The Hudson River Presbytery issued its ruling following a complaint about a ceremony of "holy union" conferred upon a gay couple. "If they said, `We're going to consider it a marriage and do it anyway,' then the complaint would have a case."

Other Protestant denominations have not found the issue so easy to resolve. The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church have interpreted similar ceremonies as actions mirroring marriage ceremonies. Like the Presbyterians, both denominations have church resolutions against the practice, but Episcopal clergy can preside over same-sex unions in dioceses where the practice is approved by the bishop.

The United Methodists adopted a resolution in 1996 that forbids ministers from conducting ceremonies for homosexual unions. But last month, 92 United Methodist ministers gathered in Sacramento for the "holy union" of a lesbian couple to protest the church's position.