RELIGIOUS LEADERS in Boston neighborhoods plagued by youth violence have been urging parents for years to search their children's bedroom for guns. But fear of what these parents might find and, in many cases, fear of their own children are preventing them from taking such a step. Boston police Commissioner Edward Davis suggests another way. But it is hard to envision that his proposed Safe Homes strategy would make a law enforcement list of best practices.

Safe Homes encourages parents to allow police to search their homes without a warrant. Teams of officers would remove any illegal firearm found in the home but not pursue charges unless the gun is linked to a shooting or homicide. Davis says the officers would also be encouraged to exercise maximum discretion should they encounter other contraband, such as small amounts of drugs. The primary goal, says Davis, is not to develop investigative leads but "to get a gun out of the hands of a young kid."

It's easy to see the appeal of such an initiative. Last year, 42 percent of Boston public school students surveyed in a Harvard University study said they knew or were related to a homicide victim. These kids are in desperate need of help. But the practical and constitutional foundations of Safe Homes don't provide the support they need. Other than a similar experiment in St. Louis, now disbanded, there is no place to examine the effectiveness of such an approach. And it wouldn't seem a fruitful path when so much remains undone in proven areas of prevention, including outreach to troubled teens, quality programming in teen centers, consistent community policing, and dropout-prevention programs.

Davis isn't worried about violating civil liberties. Heads of households, he says, would be required to sign a form consenting to a warrantless search. But that doesn't settle the question of why people would waive their rights when it isn't clear what the legal effects might be on other family members, or whether the seizure of other evidence might lead to criminal charges.

Much of the problem, says Davis, relates to younger gang members who hide guns for older members. Yet the sad reality is that any guns seized from homes in Boston are quickly replaced through straw purchases, gun theft, and off-the-books gun dealing. The more effective strategy would be to ensure that when gang members go to jail, no substitutes step in.

Boston police have recovered almost 700 illegal guns this year without resorting to widespread, warrantless searches. For the sake of their children and neighborhoods, parents should be encouraged and even rewarded monetarily for ridding their homes of illegal guns. The safety effect, however, would be just as great and much less risky if the exchange is made at the front steps.