What the survey said about guns and crime 5,000 people were asked how they felt about federal crime legislation, building more jails, expanding the death penalty, and tightening gun controls. Here is what they said: 84% are willing to modify or even repeal the Second Amendment right to bear arms in order to disarm criminals. 98% believe everyone convicted of a crime should serve the full sentence, without parole or probation. 84% support giving police greater discretion in using force -including deadly force - in apprehending suspects. 54% think police should have more powers to stop and question suspects, even without probable cause to do so. 80 % believed judges should have more discretion in denying bail. 87 % wanted to curtail - or even eliminate - plea bargaining in cases involving violent crimes. 58 % were willing to loosen laws restricting the use of improperly obtained evidence in criminal trials. 38 % said they would be willing to pay $1 00 tax to increase their home-town police force by 20 percent. 92 % favored the death penalty. 93 % wanted to cut down on death-row appeals. (the margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 %)
Copyright © 1999 International Association for Property and Evidence, Inc. Reprinted from the Evidence Log, Volume 1994, Number 3, Page 2 |
