“Let It Go:” Finding Possibilities for New Movement Strategies after Failure

After decades of limited action on gun control policies particularly on the federal level, the gun violence prevention movement in the United States has largely failed to reach the goals it had set out for itself. This article examines what has come after that failure. Using in-depth interviews I conducted with gun violence prevention organizers across the country during a nine-month period of fieldwork between 2021 and 2022, I explore the strategies and goals of activists and ask how experiences of success and failure have changed them. I argue that activists have found, after failure, new strategies, creative approaches, and more comprehensive and ambitious solutions to gun violence. Moreover, through repertoires of strategies focused on community building and everyday acts of resistance, gun violence prevention activists have found renewed meaning in their work.