Getting Fingers Off Triggers

· The 11 people wounded in six shootings during a two-hour span a week ago.

· The killing of a man and wounding of three others in a drive-by shooting a week earlier.

· The death of a man who was shot in the head late Tuesday.

· The man found dead early Wednesday morning with several gunshot wounds.

An initiative announced yesterday by Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson and Fenty is aimed at drying up the supply of guns -- and catching those who use them. Both goals are critical. But reaching people before they want to shoot and kill is the real solution.

This brings me to Wednesday afternoon on Raleigh Place SE outside the headquarters of Peaceoholics, a conflict-resolution group that works with youths. Frustration and anger at the current wave of drive-by shootings were on display.

D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) told the people assembled there that he's been to 60 funerals for teenagers and is tired of it. He led onlookers in chants of "Stop the drive-bys!" and "Enough is enough!" His admonition to "do the right thing," coming from him of all people, took my breath away.

Peaceoholics co-founder Ronald "Mo" Moten called for a "code in the streets" to brand drive-by shootings as acts of cowardice.

Fenty was there as well. He announced a two-week extension of the city's summer jobs program and urged cooperation with the police. D.C. Council member Kwame Brown (D-At Large) was on hand, too. He, too, urged a change in the code and said the community should "make it uncomfortable for those who commit drive-bys."

The Rev. Donald Isaac, executive director of the East of the River group, challenged pastors and parishioners to open their doors, "come out of the safety of your churches and sanctuaries" and get involved with young people in the community.

My childhood friend Tyrone White, who lives on Raleigh Place, spoke feelingly about the absence of love in the lives of youths and reminded the gathering that when he and I were growing up in the West End-Foggy Bottom area, disputes were settled with fists, not guns.

But the real story on guns and violence concerns the work being done by groups such as Peaceoholics when the cameras and reporters are gone. Because of parental default, they -- and hundreds like them in the community -- have become surrogate dads, intervening in the lives of young people on the edge with the kind of teaching, support and tough love missing in the young people's homes. They're the surrogates who are going into the jails and youth detention centers in attempts to reclaim lives given over to violence. They're the ones with fingers in the dike, trying to avert the disaster taking shape on our streets.

kingc@washpost.com