County Has Higher Gun Ownership

Residents of Orange County and other relatively safe suburban areas are more likely to own a gun than are those who live in Los Angeles--and they also are more likely to be involved in deadly handgun accidents, statistics show.

A recent Los Angeles Times Poll found that 20% of Orange County residents own guns, compared to 14% in the city of Los Angeles, excluding the San Fernando Valley.

Experts say gun ownership rates are lowest in cities and highest in rural areas, with suburbs fitting in between. The Times Poll found rates of 19% to 21% in suburban areas of Los Angeles County--similar to Orange County’s rate--and 25% in Ventura County, which has a mix of rural and suburban living.

The trend also is seen in handgun sales. Figures compiled by the state show 771 handguns were sold in Orange County last year per 100,000 residents, far higher than the Los Angeles County rate of 432.

And sales in Orange County, while declining, are not dropping as fast as they are in Los Angeles. Sales were down 59% between 1990 and 1998 in Los Angeles County and only 40% in Orange County, according to the state attorney general’s office.

Statistics on accidental shootings mirror the pattern: Orange County’s death rate from accidental handgun shootings, while lower than that of many rural counties, is twice the rate for Los Angeles County.

Statistics compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control show the number of fatal accidental handgun shootings in Orange County has fluctuated from two to 10 between 1979 and 1996, the latest year for which data are available. That amounts to a rate of 0.18 per 100,000 residents, compared to a rate of 0.09 in Los Angeles County over the same period.

Against the backdrop of dropping crime rates across the nation, one puzzling question is why suburbanites, who overwhelmingly say they feel safer than do people in urban areas, own more guns.

Police and those who study crime say there are several reasons: because people who move to the suburbs to get away from big-city crime are more likely to see the need for protection; because suburban families are, on average, more affluent and can afford guns; and because they feel that they have more to protect.

Beyond that, some say, many Orange County residents fear the creeping effects of urbanization. “Orange County is not just a suburb,” said Mary Leigh Blek, who founded Orange County Citizens for the Prevention of Gun Violence, a gun-control advocacy group. People “feel like a part of the larger urban environment of the region.”

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Jim Spreine, chief of the Laguna Beach Police Department and a law enforcement officer for almost 30 years, said: “We have gangs now. Fifteen years ago, we weren’t talking about gangs. People are very concerned about urbanization. We’re resisting this idea. We still want the quaintness of a suburb.”

Sam Anderson, a Ventura County real estate agent, said he moved from Orange County because he felt it had become too urban. He believes many other suburban homeowners respond to that concern not by moving, but by buying guns.

“I think people do feel [they] have a sense of entitlement. They say, ‘My area is safe, it’s gonna stay that way, and I’m gonna make sure it is. I’m gonna make sure [crime] doesn’t happen.’ There’s a friction there. You don’t want your suburbs turning into the city.”

Some suggest deeper sociological reasons for why suburbanites have more guns.

“The people who live in urban areas tend to be Democrats, they tend to be more liberal, they tend to be better disposed toward government,” said Jay Wachtell, a criminal justice lecturer at Cal State Fullerton and a former agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. “In suburbs, they tend to be more wary of government control. I think that the possession of guns is more driven by a person’s political point of view.”

Regardless of the reasons for guns in the suburbs, their presence means more opportunities for accidental shootings, experts say.

In 1996, a Santa Ana man killed a neighbor accidentally after firing a warning shot at children who were pelting his house with lemons. Last year a 9-month-old boy was killed after his mother grabbed a gun out of fear, she said, of an intruder.

“The more weapons you have, the more likely you are to have accidents,” Orange Police Chief Andy P. Romero said. “I believe the chances of it accidentally discharging increase exponentially.”

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More guns also mean more chances for an angry confrontation to turn into a crime of passion.

Just last week a Buena Park man fatally shot a 17-year-old Halloween prankster who took his plastic pumpkin. While authorities have charged the man with murder, Pete Tavita Solomona says the gun went off accidentally.

In cases where homeowners confront suspected criminals, occasionally with deadly results, higher expectations of safety in the suburbs may play a role, said Sandra Sutphen, a professor of criminal justice at Cal State Fullerton.

A plastic pumpkin, she said, becomes much more than a decoration--it becomes a symbol of a tree-lined and peaceful existence that people paid good money for, she said.

“It’s like road-rage in your house. The encapsulation of being in your car is sort of like being in your castle in your home. You feel invulnerable in your car. You want to feel invulnerable in your house,” she said.

Gun-control advocates say shooting statistics show the perils of gun ownership. There are better ways to protect a house, they say: An alarm. A good dog, with sharp teeth and a mean face.

“If you are depressed, you can treat that with medicine. If you have a gun in the house, you are . . . more likely to kill yourself with a gun,” said gun-control advocate Blek, who favors restrictions on handgun ownership. “If you have a man who loses his cool and has easy access to a gun, it translates into a gun death.”

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But some police officials say that risk goes along with a citizen’s constitutional right to bear arms and obligation to protect his or her home and loved ones.

“It’s the price you pay for your right,” Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters said.

“I do believe you have a basic need and responsibility to defend your family,” agreed Fullerton Police Chief Patrick E. McKinley. “With training. If a man knows what he’s doing, by golly, have the weapon. Police can assist.”

Training, Walters agreed, makes all the difference between a gun that is a danger and a gun that can protect.

A good trainer will teach not only basics--such as learning about safety latches and how to hold a gun when cleaning it--but also a good dose of meticulous caution.

“I really support the idea of training courses,” Walters said. “You always treat a gun as if it is loaded.”

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Properly used, guns can save lives, police officials said.

McKinley figures that over his 35-year career, including a stint directing the SWAT team for the Los Angeles Police Department, about half the time a civilian used a gun defensively it helped the victim survive.

Walters agreed.

“A couple of years ago, there was a home invasion of a Vietnamese family. Upstairs, a former colonel in the South Vietnamese army heard what was going on. He came down with a gun, and he stopped the whole thing. We caught the guys. Nobody was killed.”

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Times staff writer Jack Leonard contributed to this report.