Socialists Need an Independent Approach to Gun Violence

Jewelry created in the “Swords to Plowshares” program is shown during an event near the U.S. Capitol on November 16, 2021, in Washington, D.C.WIN MCNAMEE / GETTY IMAGES

Among the many grim features of U.S. life in 2022, gun violence might be especially depressing because it is a crisis that seems so solvable and yet hopeless at the same time.

We are trapped in a national gun debate between a rabidly political right wing and a stubbornly apolitical center, with the left nowhere in sight. On one side are demagogues in the National Rifle…