Atlanta (August 15, 1996) -- The adoption of state laws allowing citizens to carry concealed firearms enjoys strong support from a majority of the nation's registered voters according to a recent national survey, and research firm the University of Chicago concludes that such laws may be responsible for significantly reducing serious crimes like rape and murder.

Sixty percent of the voting public favors the right of citizens to obtain a "concealed carry" license, while 36% oppose. The nation-wide survey of 1003 registered voters was conducted for the American Firearms Council (AFC), July 21-23, by the Tarrance Group, a Virginia-based public affairs polling firm. Support for concealed carry laws may well increase following the public release of a comprehensive study comparing crime rates of states with "concealed carry" laws to those without. John R. Lott of the U. of Chicago's School of Law has concluded that as many as 6280 murders, 16,708 rapes, and over 240,000 aggravated assaults could have been avoided over the past four years if those states without such laws had adopted them in 1992. *

The AFC's Tarrance survey also found overwhelming voter opposition to federal funding of the Center for Disease Control's research on gun violence. Seventy percent responded that the CDC's funding should be used instead to find cures for diseases like cancer and AIDS. Only 17% approved of the CDC's continued gun research. Criticism from doctors and criminologists of the CDC's gun violence research focuses on its using methodologically faulty and results-oriented data in support of the increasing political effort by anti-gun activists to define criminal violence and the gun control debate as a public health issue.

Another effort by anti-gun activists that lacks popular public support is their increasing attempts to hold the firearm industry responsible for the criminal misuse of guns by filing liability law- suits against the makers and sellers of firearms. An impressive 84% of respondents to the Tarrance poll say it is the individual who uses the gun illegally who should he held responsible. Only 5% believe that the manufacturer or retail seller should be liable.

The Tarrance Group is pleased to present the results of this survey to the American Firearms Council. This section outlines the research techniques used in gathering the information presented in this report. The project director for this study was Lori Grudermuth with design and analytical support from Bill Cullo, Todd Vitale, William Stewart. and Caitlin McCall. General staff support was provided by Steve Wemer, Mary Kobet, Stuart Vickery, Jessica Piazza and Brad Stephenson. This report contains the results of a telephone survey of N=1,004 registered voters throughout the United States. Responses to this survey were gathered July 21-23, 1996.

All respondents interviewed in this study were part of a fully representative sample based on latest voter registration figures within the United States. The confidence interval associated with a sample of this type is such that 95% of the time results will be within +/- 3.1% of the "true values" where "true values" refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every voter in the country.

Interviewing was conducted by The Tarrance Group personnel working from the company's telephone bank facility in Houston, Texas. Each interview lasted approximately sixteen minutes. Twenty-three (23)% of all interviews were conducted with households with unlisted numbers. Editing, coding and computer processing of the data was done at the Houston offices of The Tarrance Group. The computer tabulations were produced by SPSS PC+, a statistical software package copyrighted by SPSS, Inc.

Do you believe that average Americans, such as yourself. should be allowed, after proper training, to be able to obtain a "concealed carry" license for self-protection?

Thinking now about the Center for Disease Control, a federal government agency that spends two point five (2.5) million dollars in taxpayer funds each year researching gun \violence in the U.S. The Center for Disease Control conducts this research because they consider gun violence to be a disease.

And switching subjects to the criminal misuse of guns -- Who should be held legally responsible for the criminal misuse of guns (ROTATE) --