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…