Asians in California more fearful of gun violence, hate crime victims

Two-thirds of Asians, and a similar percentage of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, said they were "very worried" or "somewhat worried" about becoming victims of gun violence, significantly higher than the 43 per cent average of Californians of all races, according to the report released on Tuesday.

By comparison, 49 per cent of Hispanic respondents, 45 per cent of Black respondents, and 30 per cent of white respondents said they were "very worried" or "somewhat worried" about becoming victims of gun violence, the report found.

The report cited results from the 2021 California Health Interview Survey, an annual UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) survey that interviewed more than 20,000 California households.

Among the Asians, people of Korean origin reported the highest level of fear of gun violence, with 70 per cent saying they were very worried or somewhat worried about it. This was followed by 66 per cent of people of Filipino and Chinese origin, and 62 per cent of people of Vietnamese origin, according to the report, said Xinhua.

Several factors likely contributed to Asians' higher level of fear of gun violence victimisation, including reports of hate crimes and hate incidents against Asian residents during the pandemic, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder of AAPI Data and a professor of public policy at UC Riverside.

One in four Asian Americans in California has experienced a hate crime or hate incident, with Southeast Asians reporting the highest levels of hate experiences at a rate of 44 per cent, according to the report.

Attitudes toward reporting hate crimes to law enforcement agencies varied among Asian groups. Only one third of Asian Americans expressed being "very comfortable" reporting hate crimes to law enforcement.

Confidence in the criminal legal system varied much more across factors such as nativity and English proficiency. Only 36 per cent of US-born Asian Americans agreed that justice would be served, statistically significantly lower than that of both naturalised Asian American citizens and Asian American non-citizens, the report showed.

The mass shootings in schools, movie theatres, and other public settings over the last several years may have also contributed to the heightened sense of fear, Ramakrishnan said.

Previous research done by AAPI Data showed that Asian Americans tended to be the strongest supporters of gun control, he added.

Ramakrishnan surmised that if the same survey was conducted today, an even higher proportion of Asians would report being worried about gun violence after the two recent mass shootings in the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) community in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park.

"Gun control is an Asian American issue, it has not gotten the recognition it deserves... Asian Americans need to be part of that conversation. It also means gun control advocacy organisations need to pay attention and invest in Asian American communities," Ramakrishnan was quoted as saying in a report by the San Francisco Chronicle.