U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy last week proclaimed gun violence in this country a public health crisis. That historic pronouncement represented the first time the government’s leading public health body has focused directly on gun violence.

To that declaration, we can hear frustrated residents of Youngstown and Warren sigh, “It’s about time.”

For many of the Valley’s urban residents, firearms crime and its tragic and deadly consequences are nothing new. They have been a localized public health crisis for years, if not decades.

The proof is in the numbers and the growing chorus of anti-violence activism in the Valley’s two largest cities. Youngstown, in particular, has been hard hit this summer with its most serious violent crime streak in years. In June alone, five homicides were recorded bringing the year’s total toll to 13. That’s a shocking 100 percent increase over the first-half year toll in 2023.

It’s also visible in escalating community anguish, frustration and outrage. Witness the march by dozens through a crime-plagued section of southeast Warren two weeks ago who chanted, “Enough is Enough” of gun violence.

Or witness last Sunday’s rally in Youngstown on the site of a June murder of a 19-year-old college student at which participants called on joint efforts of churches, community partnerships, law enforcement, local governments, parents and neighborhood groups to fight the scourge.

Those rally-goers were absolutely correct in their appeal. A robust multi-pronged offensive against wanton urban violence must be priority No. 1 to restore long-lost safety and security to many hard-hit neighborhoods.

On the federal level, we hope Murthy’s dire epidemic proclamation is matched with concrete resources to battle the epidemic. Murthy proposed investing federal funding in community-based programs designed to thwart thuggery. Programs such as ACTION serving Youngstown and Warren and the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence in Youngstown could stand all the reinforcements they can muster. They and other groups have succeeded in steering impressionable young people toward community- and character-building and away from a life of drug addiction and gang banging on the streets.

On the state level, lawmakers can work harder toward deterring violent criminal behavior. Members of the Ohio General Assembly should quickly pass the Repeat Offenders Act. Introduced by Reps. Bernie Willis, R-Springfield, and Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Township, the bill would increase prison time substantially for any person caught a second or third time having a gun illegally. Like any other state or federal statute aimed at controlling gun violence, however, it would not risk weakening any American’s guaranteed Second Amendment right to own and responsibly use firearms.

On the local level, city leaders in Youngstown and Warren must marshal all available resources to staunch the violence, increase public safety and cleanse the soiled image urban killing fields creates.

Zero-tolerance policies should be enforced aggressively . In past campaigns in Youngstown, such efforts have made a difference. Guns and drugs — the stuff of which violent crime is made — have been confiscated, disarming would-be criminals.

Zero tolerance also means strict enforcement of 11 p.m. curfews – no exceptions. As Guy Burney, leader of CIRV put it at Youngstown’s anti-violence rally this week,” Nothing good happens when young people are out after midnight.”

Partnerships with other law enforcement agencies also have made a difference in curbing violence. Renewing saturation patrols in high-crime areas by city police with the assistance of sheriff’s deputies and others also merits serious consideration.

We therefore look for ongoing and enhanced cooperation among police agencies, deputy sheriffs, task forces on violent crime, the judicial system, social-service agencies and others. That includes members of the public who far too often are reluctant to offer assistance to police for fear of snitching on violent criminals.

Clearly, proven strategies coupled with creative new initiatives must intensify to remove the long-standing crime stain that lessens the quality of life for all of us in the Youngstown-Warren metro area.