So all eyes will be on Harrisburg later this month, when the state House meets in a rare, informal daylong voting session on how to curb violent crime in the City of Brotherly Love and across Pennsylvania.

But where some Philadelphia-area lawmakers see the need for tough new gun-control measures, local legislators and top law-enforcement officials see an opportunity to get to the root of the problem: drugs.

“Gun violence is coming from the drug trade,” said state Rep. Katie True, a Republican from East Hempfield Township. “People who deal in drugs, who make millions of dollars, really don’t care what kind of laws we pass on guns.”

True will be among a local panel of lawmakers, law enforcers and two local juvenile offenders trying to come up with crime solutions other than gun control. Among her proposals will be requiring Children & Youth case workers to have at least 20 hours of training in how to spot drug use and understand how it affects families.

The roundtable discussion on violent crime is being held at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday on the fifth floor of the Lancaster County Courthouse. The proposals will likely make it to the House when it meets in a special “committee of the whole” on Sept. 26.

Already, House Speaker John Perzel, a Philadelphia Republican, wants the state to spend $225 million to help cities and towns across the state to hire 10,000 new police officers by 2010.

And Rep. Dwight Evans, a Democrat from Philadelphia, is seeking votes on bills that would limit the sale of handguns to one per month, per customer and ban military-style guns statewide.

But such gun-control legislation faces steep odds, as it has in the recent past. Lancaster County District Attorney Don Totaro, who will also sit on the panel Tuesday, believes there are more effective ways of curbing violent crime.

“As far as gun control, I don’t see that working. Not at all,” he said. “One of the reasons is, criminals will always find ways around the laws. Essentially they only affect law-abiding citizens.”

He added, “For example, convicted felons who illegally possess guns and those who act as ‘straw purchasers’ to buy guns for felons present a clear danger to our community, yet state penalties are inadequate to deal with this serious problem.”

The solution, he said, is tougher prison sentences.

“The tragic shooting of an F&M College student last week once again illustrates the need for tougher penalties against criminals who possess guns,” Totaro said. “Because not all gun crimes are prosecuted in federal court, it is incumbent upon our state Legislature to address this deadly problem by passing laws that hold dangerous criminals responsible for their actions.”

State Rep. Dave Hickernell, a Republican from Elizabethtown who will also sit on the panel, said he isn’t certain more police officers would solve the problem, either.

But he’d like to ask law enforcement officials Tuesday: “Do you think spending another $225 million to expand local police is going to reduce the crime problem? My inclination is no, it probably would not.”

In addition to True, Hickernell and Totaro, attending the roundtable discussion will be Rep. Scott Boyd, a Republican from West Lampeter Township; Detective John Ator of the Lancaster County Drug Task Force; Lancaster County Detective William Chalfant, an expert in gang-related crime; two juvenile offenders who are residents of Manos House, a drug rehabilitation facility in Lancaster; Elizabethtown area Magisterial District Judge Jayne Duncan; and West Lampeter Township Chief of Police James Walsh.