It's shaping up to be a heated summer, in terms of violence, not weather. Bullets have been flying, sometimes hitting their intended targets and sometimes innocent bystanders.

With the specter of violence looming over part of Racine - and we would emphasize that it is a relatively small part - it may be time to borrow an idea from the East Coast.

Our governments should consider creating a registry of gun offenders. It would work just like the sex offender registry which has been a focus for parents, and with the same idea. People convicted of crimes with guns would have to sign up, meaning police would know who they are and where they are.

When Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon announced her city's registry last fall, she noted that 49 percent of the homicide suspects arrested by city police had records of previous firearms involvement. The city's acting police commissioner said the registry promised to be a useful tool for monitoring the actions of criminals likely to commit other crimes. Under Baltimore's system, offenders have to register every six months for three years following conviction or imprisonment, and failing to register is a violation of parole or probation punishable by a year's imprisonment and a $1,000 fine.

Baltimore was the second city to enact such a registry. New York was first. A couple of months ago the mayors of those cities, and others, gathered in Baltimore to talk about restricting the traffic in illegal guns along the East Coast. (A Maryland gun task force also made headway in locating and confiscating illegal weapons, but that's another subject.)

Although the effectiveness of sex offender registries in reducing crime is questionable, they do keep the public informed about what's happening around them and suggest who in society should be singled out for particular scrutiny. The same rationale can be used for gun registries.

Even with all the vilification that accompanies the gun control debate, no one argues against penalties for people who break firearms laws. The registry idea is an interesting sort of compromise between the extreme anti- and pro-gun positions.

It registers people who have committed a crime and are likely to repeat, yet it emphasizes existing law and doesn't affect law-abiding citizens. It doesn't register guns or all gun owners as a preemptive act. This makes a good deal of sense, and it should at least be tried locally. A regional list would make even more sense given the easy connections which exist between the Racine area and its larger urban neighbors to the north and south.