Editorial : Valiant Try in Face of U.S. Gun Law Ambivalence

Tuesday, San Diego will launch perhaps the most intelligently crafted gun buy-back program in the nation, having learned from the mistakes of other cities. Will it stem the city’s record murder rate? No way. Is it worth the time, money and effort? Absolutely. Is that a contradiction? Not at all.

In truth, the San Diego program is a small but worthy attempt to enhance public safety in a city rocked last year by 167 homicides. It shouldn’t be viewed as anything more.

Unfortunately, some proponents couldn’t resist the temptation to oversell this modest effort. It’s not a major anti-crime move. It’s more rightly characterized as an act of desperation--albeit justified--by a city overwhelmed by a flood of weapons in a nation ambivalent about controlling them.

The real solutions must come from Washington--most notably a nationwide waiting period for gun purchases, such as the Brady Bill, and a coast-to-coast ban on deadly assault weapons. But, until action on these critical issues comes from the federal level, municipal officials have every right--indeed, the duty--to do whatever they can locally.

Enter the San Diego program. By earmarking $25,000 in assets seized from local drug dealers, city officials hope to buy hundreds of weapons off the streets in the next two weeks. But, even before the program begins, a major disappointment has arisen. The private sector had been expected to contribute enough funds to at least double the size of the effort. So far, corporate and private contributions are zilch.

Some say the private sector has been cowed by fears of an NRA boycott. We hope not.

A far more legitimate fear is that San Diego will rack up another record murder rate this year as the corporate and business community sits quietly on its wallet.

Some may also be skeptical about the program’s effects. If so, they’re wrong on that score, too. Sure, the Crips aren’t going to line up to cash in their Uzis. Virtually everyone participating in the program will be a law-abiding citizen. But anything that even partially dries up the flood of weapons on San Diego streets has to be a good thing.

After all, guns bought by the good guys often end up in the hands of the bad guys via burglaries and car break-ins. And the mere presence of a gun in the home lowers the threshold for violence and tragic accidents.

San Diego police say at least one in five gun-related homicides last year almost certainly wouldn’t have occurred if firearms weren’t within easy reach, allowing domestic disputes to quickly escalate from yells to gunshots. And the Journal of the American Medical Assn. recently reported that the odds that a suicidal teen-ager will succeed in ending his or her life increase 75-fold when there is a gun in the home--even if the weapon is locked up.

Clearly, it’s a mistake to view this program through the narrow scope of crime statistics. We’re talking about something much broader--public safety, from accidents involving curious children to a second chance for a depressed teen-ager. Any effort to demilitarize this increasingly violent city deserves all the support San Diegans can muster.