BY EMILY SWANSONAssociated Press

WASHINGTON — The num-ber of Americans who live in ahousehold with at least onegun is lower than it’s everbeen, according to a majorAmerican trend survey thatfinds the decline in gun owner-ship is paralleled by a reduc-tion in the number ofAmericans who hunt.

According to the latestGeneral Social Survey, 32 per-cent of Americans either owna firearm themselves or livewith someone who does,which ties a record low set in2010. That’s a significant de-cline since the late 1970s andearly 1980s, when about halfof Americans told researchersthere was a gun in their house-hold.

The General Social Surveyis conducted by NORC, an in-dependent research organiza-tion based at the University ofChicago, with money from theNational Science Foundation.Because of its long-runningand comprehensive set ofquestions about the demo-graphics, behaviors and atti-tudes of the American public,

it is a highly regarded sourceof data about social trends.

Data from the 2014 surveywas released last week, and ananalysis of its findings on gunownership and attitudes to-ward gun permits was con-ducted by General SocialSurvey staff.

The drop in the number ofAmericans who own a gun orlive in a household with one isprobably linked to a decline inthe popularity of hunting,from 32 percent who said theylived in a household with atleast one hunter in 1977 toless than half that number say-ing so now.

That the number of house-holds with at least one gun isdeclining doesn’t necessarilymean that the number beingpurchased is on the decline.Data from the FBI’s NationalInstant Criminal BackgroundCheck system shows that inrecent years there’s actuallybeen an increase in the num-ber of background checksbeing run, suggesting the totalnumber of firearms being pur-chased is going up.

But those are concentratedin fewer hands than they werein the 1980s, the General So-

cial Survey finds. The 2014poll finds that 22 percent ofAmericans own a firearm,down from a high of 31 per-cent who said so in 1985.

The survey also finds ashrinking gender gap in per-sonal firearm ownership as aresult of a decline in the per-centage of men who own one,from 50 percent in 1980 to 35percent in 2014.

Fewer women than menown guns, but the percentageamong women has held fairlysteady since 1980, with 12 per-cent now saying they person-ally own a gun.

Only 14 percent of adultsunder age 35, but 31 percentof those over age 65, say theypersonally own a gun. Thatgap has increased over time— in 1980, younger adultswere only slightly less likelythan older ones to report thatthey owned a gun.

The poll finds half of Re-publicans live in householdswith at least one gun, which is

twice as high as ownershipamong Democrats or inde-pendents.

People in higher-incomehouseholds are significantlymore likely than those inlower-income households toown a gun, the survey finds.Gun ownership rates also varyby race, with 4 in 10 whiteAmericans living in house-holds with a gun comparedwith less than 2 in 10 blacksand Hispanics.

Blacks and Hispanics arealso more likely than whites tosupport requiring a permit toown a gun, although large ma-jorities among all three groupssupport permitting. In total, 72percent of Americans say theysupport requiring anyone buy-ing a gun to get a permit.

The survey also finds 72percent of Americans supporta requirement that anyonepurchasing a gun must firstget a permit.

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NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING & ELECTION OF DIRECTORS OF B-Y WATER DISTRICT

TO BE HELD ONMARCH 25, 2015

At the Scotland VFW Building, 531 First Street, Scotland, South

Dakota, at 1:30 p.m. for the purpose of electing directors to

succeed those whose terms are about to expire. Those directors

whose terms are about to expire and the division which they

represent are Chris Nelsen, Div. #1; James Stark, Div. #2; Gary

Kronaizl, Div. #3; and Mark Schaeffer, Div. #10.

Toll Free: 1-800-529-2450 665-5700

Tuesday, 3.10.15ON THE WEB: www.yankton.net

NEWSROOM: News@yankton.net PRESS DAKOTAN P A G E 7

the world

OU Cuts Ties With Fraternity After Video NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — The president of the University

of Oklahoma severed the school’s ties with a national fra-ternity on Monday and ordered that its on-campus housebe shuttered after several members took part in a racistchant caught on video.

President David Boren said he was sickened and could-n’t eat or sleep after learning about the video Sunday after-noon. The video, which was posted online, shows severalpeople on a bus participating in a chant that included aracial slur, referenced lynching and indicated black stu-dents would never be admitted to OU’s chapter of SigmaAlpha Epsilon.

The Oklahoma football team decided to protest ratherthan practice on Monday. At the team’s indoor practice fa-cility, coach Bob Stoops led the way as players, joined byathletic director Joe Castiglione, walked arm-in-arm, wear-ing black.

Boren attended a pre-dawn rally organized by studentsand lambasted those fraternity members as “disgraceful”and called their behavior “reprehensible.” He said the uni-versity was looking into a range of punishment, includingexpulsion.

Boost In High-Tech Training ProposedWASHINGTON (AP) — Targeting stagnant wages in an

otherwise improving economy, President Barack Obama onMonday called on employers, educational institutions andlocal governments to develop a home grown high technol-ogy workforce that could help drive up higher-income em-ployment.

The effort aims to attack a stubborn downside of thecurrent economic recovery and fill what the White Housesays is a gaping demand for high-tech workers in theUnited States.

“We’ve got to keep positioning ourselves for a con-stantly changing global economy,” Obama said in announc-ing his “TechHire” initiative at a gathering of the NationalLeague of Cities. “If we’re not producing enough tech work-ers, over time that’s going to threaten our leadership inglobal innovation, which is the bread and butter of the 21stcentury economy.”

40 Injured When Train, Trailer Collide RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Transportation officials say 40

passengers were injured when an Amtrak train collidedwith a tractor-trailer that was stuck on the tracks in NorthCarolina.

DOT officials said 25 people were taken to Halifax Re-gional Medical Center by bus and 15 by ambulance afterthe collision, which happened about noon Monday.

They said none of the injuries appeared to be life-threat-ening. A bus will take another 173 passengers who weren’tinjured to Richmond, Virginia.

Halifax County law-enforcement officials say the colli-sion toppled the engine onto its side. They say the first twocars of the train toppled after the crash.

State transportation officials say the second car that de-railed was a baggage car.

Man Killed In Shooting Was Risk-TakerMADISON, Wis. (AP) — An unarmed black man fatally

shot by a white Wisconsin police officer tended to be animpulsive risk-taker and faced a choice between a middle-class lifestyle and the gang world, according to court docu-ments.

The file connected to 19-year-old Tony Robinson’s con-viction last year for armed robbery shows he was diag-nosed with attention-deficit disorder and anxiety anddepression. The documents were contained in a report bya state Department of Corrections agent.

Madison police officer Matt Kenny shot Robinson lateFriday while investigating a call that the young man wasjumping in and out of traffic and had assaulted someone.The officer heard a disturbance and forced his way into anapartment where Robinson had gone. Authorities saidKenny fired after Robinson assaulted him.

The shooting is the latest in a series of incidents involv-ing white police officers killing unarmed black men overthe last year, including in Ferguson, Missouri, where officerDarren Wilson shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown inAugust. That shooting sparked weeks of unrest.

Apple Unveils Rumored ‘Smartwatch’SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Make calls, read email, control

music, manage Instagram photos, keep up with your work-out, pay for groceries, open your hotel room door. CEO TimCook says you can do it all from your wrist with AppleWatch — for 18 hours a day. That’s how long the batterywill last on an average day.

Pre-orders start April 10. The device costs $349 for abase model, while a luxury gold version will start at$10,000. Industry watchers are eager to see if Apple’s ver-sion will be the tipping point for the sluggish smartwatchmarket. There was similar skepticism when Apple releasedthe iPad in 2010, yet the company has successfully soldmillions and its popularity has shaken up the PC market.

The stakes are high for a company that just dislodgedAT&T as one of the 30 stocks comprising the venerableDow Jones industrial average. The watch is the first brand-new device Apple has launched without Steve Jobs.

GOP Works To UndercutNuclear Deal With Iran

BY BRADLEY KLAPPERAND DEB RIECHMANNAssociated Press

WASHINGTON — Republican lawmak-ers warned the leaders of Iran on Mondaythat any nuclear deal they cut with Presi-dent Barack Obama could expire the dayhe leaves office. The White House de-nounced the GOP’s latest effort to under-cut the international negotiations as a“rush to war.”

Monday’s open letter from 47 GOPsenators marked an unusually public andaggressive attempt to undermine Obamaand five world powers as negotiators tryto strike an initial deal by the end ofMarch to limit Iran’s nuclear programs.

Republicans say a deal would be insuf-ficient and unenforceable, and they havemade a series of proposals to undercut orblock it — from requiring Senate say-soon any agreement to ordering newpenalty sanctions against Iran or evenmaking a pre-emptive declaration of war.

Obama, noting that some in Iran alsowant no part of any deal, said: “I think it’ssomewhat ironic that some members ofCongress want to make common causewith the hardliners in Iran. It’s an unusualcoalition.”

The letter was written by freshmanSen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who op-poses negotiations with Iran. It’s ad-dressed to the “Leaders of the IslamicRepublic of Iran” and presents itself as aconstitutional primer to the governmentof an American adversary. Senate Major-ity Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky’ssignature is on it, as are those of severalprospective presidential candidates.

Explaining the difference between a

Senate-ratified treaty anda mere agreement be-tween Obama and Iran’sAyatollah Ali Khamenei,the senators warned,“The next president couldrevoke such an executiveagreement with thestroke of a pen, and fu-ture Congresses couldmodify the terms of the

agreement at any time.”Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed

Javad Zarif responded via state media,dismissing the letter as a “propagandaploy” and noting that many internationaldeals are “mere executive agreements.”He suggested the senators were under-mining not only the prospective deal withIran but other international agreementsas well.

With Cotton presiding over the Senateon Monday, Democratic leader Harry Reidspoke out, saying Republicans weredriven by animosity toward Obama andunwilling to recognize that American vot-ers had twice elected him president.

“Let’s be very clear: Republicans areundermining our commander-in-chiefwhile empowering the ayatollahs,” Reidsaid.

“Republicans don’t know how to doanything other than juvenile political at-tacks against the president,” the 75-year-old Reid said with the 37-year-old Cottonlistening.

The Republicans’ move to stop a nu-clear deal with Iran comes just days afterIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Ne-tanyahu spoke to a joint meeting of Con-gress at Republican House Speaker JohnBoehner’s invitation. In his address, Ne-

tanyahu bluntly warned the United Statesthat a deal would pave Iran’s path to a nu-clear bomb.

The White House denounced Cotton’sletter, saying it was part of an ongoingpartisan strategy to undermine the presi-dent’s ability to conduct foreign policy.

Press secretary Josh Earnest said “therush to war, or at least the rush to the mil-itary option, that many Republicans areadvocating is not at all in the best interestof the United States.”

Not all Republican senators are united.One significant signature missing fromMonday’s letter was Bob Corker of Ten-nessee, the Senate Foreign Relations Com-mittee chairman. Action on any newlegislation challenging the administra-tion’s strategy would be likely to beginwith him.

Still, even if all parties to the interna-tional talks reject the letter as a stunt, themounting opposition to an accord couldhave repercussions. Negotiating alongsidethe U.S. are Britain, China, France, Ger-many and Russia.

The Obama administration believes ithas authority to lift most trade, oil and fi-nancial sanctions that would be pertinentto the nuclear deal in exchange for anIranian promise to limit its nuclear pro-grams. For the rest, it needs Congress’ ap-proval. And lawmakers could approvenew Iran sanctions to complicate matters.

Nuclear negotiations resume nextweek in Switzerland. Officials say the par-ties have been speaking about a multi-step agreement that would freeze Iran’suranium enrichment program for at leasta decade before gradually lifting restric-tions. Sanctions relief would similarly bephased in.

Cotton

Survey Shows Gun Ownership Falling