Gunning Down Real Progress : Public housing plan to quell violence is attacked by National Rifle Assn.

The National Rifle Assn.’s threat to bring legal action against the Chicago Housing Authority over rules that forbid tenants to possess firearms in public housing projects is not only irrational, it’s bizarre.

Last year there were 71 murders in Chicago’s sprawling housing projects, which are home to 150,000 people. Half of those homicides involved firearms. In an effort to control this violence, the authority recently began to enforce a 20-year-old ban on the possession of firearms by project residents by moving to confiscate weapons.

Operation Clean Sweep, as it is known, has had impressive results. Authorities have ejected hundreds of unauthorized residents; it’s estimated that 50,000 to 75,000 such residents engage in 80% of the crime in the projects. In just 15 months more than 1,000 weapons were seized. The program has been praised as a model for public housing authorities across the country.

Now some cities, including Los Angeles, have expressed interest in such a plan. However, the operation has also drawn the attention of the NRA, which seems determined to eliminate the program before it catches on.

In a letter to Chicago Housing Authority officials, NRA deputy general counsel Robert Dowlut said it’s true the housing authority can set the terms for public housing eligibility but that it “may not require an otherwise eligible individual to surrender his (constitutional) rights in order to obtain low-income housing.� Moreover, he stated that such a ban on firearms would have “a disproportionate impact on persons of African heritage.�

We wish the NRA would concern itself with the “disproportionate impact� on those who are victims of gunfire--who also happen to be black. The Chicago Housing Authority should be applauded for taking steps to protect the safety of its residents. And L.A. officials shouldn’t be swayed by the depraved arguments advanced by those who would suggest, in effect, that housing project residents have a constitutional right to kill each other.