Teens Say Getting Guns Easy

<br>CHICAGO (AP) â€” Forty-one percent of teen-agers questioned in a new national survey said they could get a handgun if they really wanted to, but the vast majority believe there are too many guns in

Wednesday, June 28th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CHICAGO (AP) â€” Forty-one percent of teen-agers questioned in a new national survey said they could get a handgun if they really wanted to, but the vast majority believe there are too many guns in society.

Teens by a 3-1 ratio believe there are too many guns in America, according to the study prepared for release Wednesday by Teenage Research Unlimited, a market research firm based in Northbrook.

The survey also found that 61 percent of teens do not believe video games can make teen-agers violent. More than one-third of the 550 teens surveyed said they know someone who has been shot.

``I'd like to say that I was not surprised by a lot of the results, but I was disturbed,'' said Claude Robinson, director of community services for the Uhlich Children's home of Chicago, a child welfare agency.

Robinson sponsored the survey so he could use the results in a program that sends teens into schools and community centers to talk about gun violence.

The survey also found that teens are more likely to believe that gun violence won't happen in their community. More than 58 percent said they weren't afraid ``that gun violence might happen in my school.''

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points