By Robert Wang, Canton Repository staff writer
COLUMBUS – Despite the fact that you’re far more likely to die in a traffic accident than in a terrorist attack in Ohio, a recent poll showed terrorism ranked among the top four concerns for Ohioans, while car accidents received no mention.
Fifteen years after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, terrorism still shapes how people think and view the two major candidates for president.
What’s their basis? What are the numbers?
RELATED: Ohio Statehouse marks 9/11 anniversary
On average, since 1995, 153 people have died on U.S. soil each year due to terrorism, which is defined as criminal acts designed to sway or persuade opinion or actions. That includes the 2001 attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 in one day. Minus that one day, the average is about a dozen deaths a year over two decades.
In Ohio in the last 45 years combined, six people have been killed by terror attacks, and all of those were before 1986.
In contrast, 752 people died last year in Ohio alone as a result of traffic accidents. Far more people die of poisonings, falls and weather disasters than terrorism.
The polling in Ohio took place in August, after attacks in France and Orlando captured the public. In response to an open-ended question about their issue of greatest concern, about 4.9 percent of respondents listed terrorism or the Islamic State as the top problem — fourth among a long list of issues — and another 4.2 percent named national security/defense, ranking sixth. Poverty/economic inequality was the top problem among those polled, at 10.9 percent.
Those most likely to be concerned about terrorism were women far more than men, Generation X, which is most likely to be in the family-rearing stage, and Republicans.
And the August poll showed that while Ohio residents still place a high priority on economic issues, terrorism and related immigration issues play an important role in defining their support or dislike for presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
RELATED: Trump edges Clinton in new Ohio poll
The Bliss Institute for Applied Politics at the University of Akron designed the survey as part of the @YourVoteOhio project, an effort by major Ohio news organizations to determine what issues Ohio voters consider the most important and their reasons for backing a particular candidate.
The Center for Marketing Opinion and Research in Akron conducted a phone survey of 1,079 Ohioans in August after surveying them in April and May. The margin of error was 3.0 percent.
A Pew Research Center poll conducted in August shows that 40 percent of Americans believe there is a greater chance of a major attack today than at the time of the 9/11 attacks – the highest percentage in 14 years. Republicans are entirely responsible for the growth, according to the poll, with 58 percent concerned about the chances of an attack.
And in Ohio, it is terrorism, national security and related immigration issues that define Donald Trump, according to the poll done for the state’s news organizations. Those who like him are highly likely to name one of those reasons as their cause for support. Not so for Clinton, whose issue-strengths are spread across multiple topics.
Clinton, the Democratic nominee, said she would work with allies to continue the campaign against Islamic State, which has inspired or claimed responsibility for many of the terrorist attacks, would seek to block suspected terrorists from buying guns in the U.S. and would support law enforcement’s efforts to build relationships with American Muslim communities, according to the nonprofit organization the Jefferson Center.
Trump, the Republican nominee, had called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering this country. He since has revised that position to blocking visitors from countries with terrorist activity. He also proposes to “crush and destroy ISIS” with joint military operations.
The Ohio polls show that the state’s residents have a sense that trade policies, income inequality and general economic conditions are critical issues, but the images and sounds of terrorism have made a lasting impression.
John Mueller, a political science professor at Ohio State University who studies government policy in response to terrorism, said that since 9/11, the number of Americans killed by Islamic terrorists has averaged about seven a year, even counting the 49 a lone gunman killed in Orlando in June. Far more die in drug overdoses every week, he said.
He said the odds of being killed in a terrorist attack are roughly 1 in 40 million. The odds of being killed in a car crash are about 1 in 8,000.
Mueller said the chances of being killed in a collision with a deer crossing a road, by lightening, by drowning in a bathtub or in an industrial accident are all greater than the chances of being killed by a terrorist in the United States. He said politicians seek to attract support, and the media seek to attract an audience, by playing into people’s fears of terrorism.
The Global Terrorism Database at the University of Maryland shows only 50 terrorist incidents have occurred in Ohio since 1970. Two have taken place since 2010. Anti-abortion activists committed 19 of those with explosives or incendiary devices against clinics or similar facilities. Other attacks that involved taking hostages, bombings and armed assaults were linked by authorities to the Christian Liberation Army, the Aryan Republican Army, left-wing militants, anarchists, black nationalists, the Black Panthers, a neo-Nazi group, workers on strike and white extremists. Six were killed and five were injured in the attacks.
Despite the rarity of terrorist attacks in Ohio, several of the 1,079 respondents in the August survey cited the presidential candidates’ stance on terrorism in their support for a candidate. About 3.2 percent said they might change their view of Clinton if she pledged to strengthen the military and developed what they view as a better plan to combat terrorists.
Trump has attracted support due to statements he has made on terrorism. Of the respondents who said they felt positive about Trump’s positions on the issues, 6.3 percent cited his pledges to fight to stop terrorists. Only 0.9 percent who felt negative about Trump’s position on the issues cited his statements on terrorism as the reason.