EDITORIAL\Facing up to gangs\One-day session is a reminder of how disparate the solutions are.

A diverse group of leaders and community activists gathered Wednesday at a Los Angeles church for a summit meeting on gangs, which from all appearances was a constructive event.

More than 40 percent of the homicides in L.A. County are gang-related, and at least one-third of the victims are innocents - with no gang involvement at all, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

While there are no one-day solutions to gang problems, it is far better for people to talk about the issue than ignore it or assume that it's unsolvable. So the summit was helpful in that way, serving as a sounding board to gauge support for several anti-gang initiatives that are being proposed.

The diverse gathering demonstrated once again that any relief will have to involve reforms in such disparate areas as law enforcement, the courts, education, the welfare system, jobs and other far-flung facets of contemporary life.

Inevitably, there will be disagreement on how much money is needed, where it should come from, and perhaps most crucial, where it should be focused - on prevention, detention or intervention.

These are not easy questions, but it was good to see so many high-level public officials and clergy begin discussing the possibilities. They included Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, Mayor Richard Riordan and Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles.

We applaud their dedication and attention to this critical issue, and for the organizational and personal support they are devoting to it.

The assembly was certainly a step in the right direction, but real solutions undoubtedly will require more meetings like it.

As Cisneros put it: "This is not about dreaming. This is about trying to come up with ways to put money where we need it."