As lawmakers in Congress bob and weave around the issue of assault weapons, officials in numerous statehouses and city halls are feeling pressure to act to protect their communities. Among the more encouraging steps was a unanimous decision this month by the Tucson City Council to move toward requiring background checks at gun shows at city-owned facilities.

The Council had been passive on the gun issue, even after the carnage two years ago in which a Tucson man with an assault weapon killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords. The slain innocents in the massacre in Newtown, Conn., changed that.

The Council ordered the city attorney to draft a resolution, which is scheduled for action next week. The measure requires any gun show using the city’s convention center and other properties to conduct background checks in person-to-person gun sales — an attempt to help close the notorious gun-show loophole that allows two out of five gun sales in the nation to avoid background checks.

The praiseworthy move comes as the gun lobby continues to push for laws proclaiming state government’s primacy on gun controls and stripping local governments of their power to take action. Arizona has such a state law, but the Tucson City Council insists its gun-show mandate is legal under its authority to regulate how city property is used. The chief sponsor of the measure, Councilman Steve Kozachik, told local reporters, “The state cannot force us to be party to people breaking the law.”