ARKANSANS SPEAK OUT: ABORTION, FLAG-BURNING, GUN CONTROL

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Compared to national polls, a higher percentage of Arkansans favor tighter restrictions on abortion, an equal percentage favor a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning, and a lesser percentage favor stricter gun control—though a strong plurality (49.4 percent) of Arkansans want tougher gun control.

These are the major findings on selected state and national policy issues released today in the second of four special reports by the Arkansas Poll, a new statewide public opinion survey conducted by researchers at the University of Arkansas. The poll, released Oct. 27, asked a sample of 885 Arkansans 68 questions on a variety of issues.

Even with the findings on abortion, flag-burning and gun control, however, there are some sharp differences on these issues that break out among Arkansans along the lines of sex, education, party and ethnicity, said Dr. Janine Parry, assistant professor of political science and director of the Arkansas Poll.

Abortion

"Arkansans’ views on the regulation of abortion are somewhat more conservative than national averages," Parry said, "though not by as large a margin as might be expected in a state that voted to add an expressly anti-abortion provision to its state constitution in 1988."

Specifically, 45 percent of the Arkansas Poll responses and 40 percent of a 1998 national Louis Harris poll said they favored laws that would make it more difficult for a woman to get an abortion.

Favoring no change to abortion laws were 32 percent of Arkansans, compared with 39 percent of Americans. Favoring changes making it easier to get an abortion were 14 percent of Arkansans and 16 percent of Americans. The remainder of respondents in both polls didn’t know or refused to answer.

Arkansas women (51 percent) were more likely than Arkansas men (39 percent) to support stricter abortion regulation, Parry said.

College graduates (39 percent) were less likely to favor stricter abortion laws than those without a college education (47.9 percent).

Three fourths (77 percent) of the respondents who reported attending church more than once a week favored stricter abortion regulation. Only 25 percent of the respondents who reported attending church never, once a year, several times a year, or once a month favored stronger abortion regulation.

Republicans (65 percent) were much more likely than Independents (43 percent) and Democrats (38 percent) to favor laws making abortion more difficult. Ideologically, conservatives (60 percent), moderates (41 percent) and liberals (25 percent) offered the same answers.

Flag-burning

"National polls, Southern polls and various state polls all show, with remarkable consistency, that three-fourths of Americans support a constitutional amendment making it illegal to burn the American flag," Dr. Parry said.

The Arkansas Poll showed the same pattern: 74 percent favored such an amendment, while only 22 percent opposed it.

"More interesting is the uniformity of this view among different groups," Parry added. "Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, rich and poor, church-goers and non-church-goers, and males and females all agreed on this issue."

Gun Control

"Throughout the 1990s, most national polls have found that roughly two-thirds of Americans favor tougher gun control," Parry said. "For the Arkansas Poll, we asked the question the same way a 1999 Harris Poll asked it—'Would you say you favor stricter gun control, or less strict gun control?’

"As both a Southern and Western state, Arkansas may be expected to look less favorably upon restrictions on guns than states in other regions," she added. "One indicator of this phenomenon is that a recent Arkansas survey found that 71 percent of the state’s households have at least one gun, compared with 35 percent nationally.

"Given such statistics, you would expect Arkansans to be less enthusiastic than Americans generally in favoring stricter gun control, and the Arkansas Poll bore that

out," Parry explained. "Some 49.4 percent of Arkansans favored stricter controls, compared to 63.3 percent of Americans in the 1999 Harris poll."

But what really surprised the researchers, she said, was that such a large proportion of Arkansans actually favored tougher gun controls.

There were sharp divisions of opinion within that overall finding, however.

Favoring stricter gun control were 62 percent of women, 35 percent of men; 45 percent of whites, 73 percent of blacks; 62 percent of Democrats, 21 percent of Republicans and 18 percent of Independents; 75 percent of the youngest age group (18-21) and 42 percent of the oldest (76 and over).

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