Background checks supported by Hoosier gun owners

By Joe Stuteville

Eighty-seven percent of those participating in a recent statewide survey say they would support a state law requiring background checks. Similar percentages of those polled also back laws that would require all new handguns sold in Indiana to be childproofed and a mandatory waiting period for all people wanting to purchase a handgun.

“The survey—the first of its kind in our state—provides an accurate measurement of Indiana residents’ opinions about the purchase of guns, safe storage of guns and other firearm injury prevention initiatives,” said Dr. Marilyn Bull, director of development pediatrics at IUSM and medical director of the partnership. “Gun violence in every sense is a public health issue.”

Indiana ranks first among surrounding central states in gun-related deaths.

Nearly 50 percent of all homes in Indiana have firearms, compared to a national average of 40 percent.

http://www.medicine.indiana.edu/news_releases/archive_01/gun_01.html

Partial survey findings:

• 86 percent feel that persons convicted of domestic violence should not be able to purchase handguns in Indiana

• 83 percent agreed that mandatory safety training on handling and storing firearms should be required in Indiana for all first-time gun buyers

• 81 percent of respondents say that gun owners with children under 18 years old residing in the home should be required by law to store all guns unloaded and locked away

• 71 percent support a requirement that all Indiana gun owners store their firearms with trigger locks

Indiana ranks first among surrounding central states in gun-related deaths.