Contra Costa, California.-- Fifteen years ago, in a test case from Morton Grove, Illinois, the Supreme Court ruled that local governments could ban or limit gun sales, unless state laws said they couldn't.
The decision stuck in the craw of the National Rifle Association. The NRA pressured all 50 state legislatures to forbid any local gun laws tougher than the state's own control statues. Forty states succumbed.
Thus when violent crime started to rise in Contra Costa County, LTC across the bay from San Francisco, citizens felt helpless and hopeless. Much of the crime was gun-related, but the state had no instant check on gun buyers. It didn't require gun permits or registration for gun carriers. Police had no idea who was armed. And the pre-emptive state law meant local officials couldn't write their own laws.
Contra Costa set up a Violence Prevention Project focused on safe homes, safe neighborhoods, safe work places, safe schools. The county's health department pulled together the effort, which attracted cross-cultural citizen involvement. Government players ranged from the police to the recreation department to the schools.
But what to do about guns -- especially since officials noted that most of the guns used in crimes were stolen or sold illegally?
The Violence Prevention Program found an ally in the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Anyone who wants to import, manufacture or deal in firearms has to register with the bureau. Nationwide, there are more than 220,000 registrants. Many of them sell guns out of their homes. The so-called "kitchen table" dealers are a major source of the guns that end up on murder and shooting scenes.
And their names are no secret. If you'd like a list of all the friendly local gun dealers on your block, in your neighborhood or town, just write the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms at 650 Massachusetts Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20226. Their data are by ZIP code. They'll send you a list, no charge.
Nationwide, the bureau has only 240 inspectors to monitor how firearms are sold, a fraction of what it needs. But by using federal data, localities can do a lot for themselves. They can check whether a gun dealer is also licensed locally for retail sales. Is he paying state sales taxes? Is his location zoned for retail sales? Is he registered with state-law enforcement authorities?
That information gives county or city officials -- even a citizens group, if it wants to take the initiative -- the evidence it needs to start weeding out gun dealers who are breaking the law. This is a cleanup that can begin without change in existing state laws.
Contra Costa found that of 661 federally licensed dealers, 71.6 percent were operating in residentially zoned areas, 81.5 percent without a business license.
Now the county's moving to do its own inspection of the gun dealers. It's considering a zoning law to bar gun dealerships -- as San Francisco has done -- within 1,500 feet of schools, parks or day-care centers.
Other communities have reduced illegal gun sales by working closely with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Berkeley, California, went from 35 gun dealers to one, Boston from 119 to 35, Chicago from 260 to 26.
In last November's election, voters of Contra Costa gave 68.9 percent approval to an advisory referendum asking the state to put a surcharge on the sale of ammunition and guns. By 73.4 percent, they petitioned for stringent state regulation of handguns and assault rifles.
By 78.9 percent, the county's voters in November also endorsed a far-ranging Countywide Action Plan for Violence Protection, written by the action coalition anchored in the county health department.
Efforts to discourage guns in private hands were on the agenda. But so were youth-mentorship programs, conflict resolution, crisis response counseling for victims and witnesses of violence, and focusing multiple government and private efforts on the shared goal of reduced violence.
The moral, for counties and cities and concerned citizen groups everywhere, is clear: In every way you can, start focusing your own civic and government forces on problems, such as violence, that are central to your quality of life and economic future. State governments are unlikely to do the job for you.
Indeed, the Republicans may have been more correct than they thought in the 1994 state elections when they argued that the chief way to help localities is to start regulating and controlling them a lot less.
Repealing the gun laws that stop localities from protecting themselves would be a grand way to start.
Neal R. Peirce writes a column on state and urban affairs.