By the measure that matters most, California’s gun laws have been effective. Thirty years ago, the gun homicide rate in the United States was the third highest in the country, 50% higher than the national average. Last year, thanks to such

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sensitive policies like an assault weapons ban and universal background checks, California recorded the seventh lowest firearm death rate nationwide, 43% lower than the U.S. average.

On a relative scale, California’s progress is very encouraging. But on a human scale, the state’s weapon remains scandalous. Last year, more than three thousand Californians were killed by gunfire, about half of them by homicide.

California has been named the nation’s top state for gun safety by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and continues to lead the nation in establishing common-sense gun regulations even as the country continues to grapple with rapidly declining tolerance for firearms restrictions. navigates the US Supreme Courts. But to further reduce the human toll, the state must seriously invest in community programs that can break the cycle of violence in the most gun-ridden neighborhoods.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has the opportunity to make such an investment on a historic scale. He can do this by signing a bill to implement the nation’s first state excise tax on retail sales of guns and ammunition. This month, the 11% tax was passed by the Legislature after a series of failed attempts

would raise an estimated $159 million per year to prevent gun violence.

Most of that revenue would go to street-level violence intervention programs. The tax would also allow for investments in school safety and programs to take guns away from people who are not allowed to own them.

The intervention programs disrupt street violence by working with people at high risk, including incarcerated youth, gang members and potential recruits, and people hospitalized with gunshot wounds. They offer conflict mediation, peer support, mentorship, trauma counseling and even relocation assistance to get people out of dangerous circumstances.

These programs use proven, evidence-based strategies in communities where intervention saves lives. While gun violence is epidemic across the country, it is especially devastating in Black and Latino communities. Half of California’s gun homicide victims last year were Latino, and 31% were black. Black parents are more likely to lose their young sons to homicide than to any other cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Armies of homegrown peacemakers at the community level are needed to draw people away from social networks in which gun violence is embedded and break this horrific cycle. For example, the Urban Peace Institute’s Los Angeles Violence Intervention Coalition is made up of 20 frontline Black and brown peacebuilders who need more investment in community-based safety.

Sustaining these public safety initiatives in cities across the state requires predictable, ongoing funding. Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore recognizes this and has supported this legislation, citing a sharp decline in gun-related homicides since the implementation of violence intervention programs.

A tax on the manufacturers and sellers of guns and ammunition is a logical source of funding for violence prevention. California has long imposed taxes on products that are harmful, including alcohol, tobacco and, most recently, marijuana. And there’s no doubt that guns cause harm: In California, someone is killed with a gun every three hours.

A federal excise tax on guns to fund wildlife conservation was supported by the National Rifle Assn. and has been around for more than a century. This is all the more remarkable because the Supreme Court has ruled that modern gun laws must be based on historical practice. If we can implement a federal tax on guns aimed at preserving wildlife, a state tax aimed at reducing human carnage is eminently reasonable.

Like most elected officials, Newsom is rightly reluctant to raise taxes. But the governor has boldly taken the lead on gun safety regulation, even proposing an amendment that would enshrine basic gun safety principles in the U.S. Constitution. Signing this bill into law would be consistent with that leadership.

Newsom knows that the fundamental point of California’s sensitive weapons regulations is to reduce violence and save lives. This legislation will certainly do that.

Paul Carrillo is the vice president of the Giffords Center for Violence Intervention and co-founder of Southern California Crossroads, a nonprofit violence prevention and intervention organization.