As the coronavirus pandemic approaches its third year, it has worsened another deadly crisis for American cities: gun violence.
With a rise in homicides in more than a dozen major U.S. cities, local leaders and gun safety experts are renewing their efforts to strike a balance between relying on law enforcement and engaging others, such as social workers, to reduce violence in at-risk communities.
There’s a shift in focus from early in the pandemic, when racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd sparked calls across many cities to defund police departments by sharply reducing their budgets or even eliminating them. Wary that such debates could stall violence reduction efforts even as deaths spike, some local leaders are turning from the defund movement and pleading with state and federal officials to help them coordinate among law enforcement, health care agencies and social services groups.
