{"id":18504,"date":"2026-08-25T05:12:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/health-weight-loss.info-tips.net\/?p=18504"},"modified":"2026-08-25T05:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:12:07","slug":"where-floridas-gun-violence-exacts-its-biggest-toll-on-black-and-latino-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/health-weight-loss.info-tips.net\/?p=18504","title":{"rendered":"Where Florida\u2019s Gun Violence Exacts Its Biggest Toll on Black and Latino Children"},"content":{"rendered":"


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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Simply west of the St. Johns River, which divides this sprawling metropolis racially and economically, 2-year-old A\u2019mahri Robinson was murdered in his mom\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n

Ladonna Johnson was rocking A\u2019mahri to sleep in March when he was shot within the head with a gun she saved for cover.<\/p>\n

A\u2019mahri liked going outside and taking rides in his pull-along wagon. His mom referred to as the toddler \u201ccandy\u201d and \u201caffectionate.\u201d When he was round, she mentioned, \u201cyou simply felt love.\u201d<\/p>\n

The kid was shut with Steven Dodson Jr., his mom\u2019s boyfriend, who had reached for the gun throughout an argument. Dodson, 21, in June pleaded guilty<\/a> to homicide and aggravated baby abuse and was sentenced to life in jail.<\/p>\n

A\u2019mahri died in certainly one of Florida\u2019s most violent locations for kids: Jacksonville. This metropolis has three ZIP codes that rank among the many 10 worst within the state for firearm accidents involving youngsters.<\/p>\n

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Two-year-old A\u2019mahri Robinson was murdered whereas in his mom\u2019s arms in March. (Ladonna Johnson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yearly, lots of of kids are hospitalized in Florida with gunshot wounds, and overwhelmingly, they arrive from a tiny variety of ZIP codes, an unique evaluation of hospital knowledge by KFF Well being Information and The Hint discovered.<\/p>\n

Hospital billing knowledge obtained from the Florida Company for Well being Care Administration reveals that from 2018 to 2024 greater than 4,000 youngsters 17 or youthful have been hospitalized for firearm accidents \u2014 a charge of about 1.5 a day.<\/p>\n

The newsrooms gathered data<\/a> that the state\u2019s hospitals use to gather funds from insurance coverage corporations or the federal government. The data doesn’t determine sufferers however contains particulars about the place they lived and their age, race, and different demographics.<\/p>\n

The variety of youngsters killed in Jacksonville has grown so giant that a nonprofit<\/a>, Households of Slain Kids, constructed a \u201cWall of Compassion\u201d memorial itemizing lots of of individuals killed by gunfire within the metropolis. Memorial organizers have stood up a second wall close by that’s filling with names.<\/p>\n

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The Jacksonville nonprofit Households of Slain Kids has constructed a memorial referred to as the \u201cWall of Compassion\u201d that lists the names of lots of of people that have been killed by gun violence within the metropolis. (Daniel Chang\/KFF Well being Information)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The numbers replicate how Florida\u2019s lengthy historical past of racial discrimination and permissive gun legal guidelines undermine public well being, mentioned researchers, public officers, neighborhood activists, and grieving mother and father.<\/p>\n

Jacksonville youngsters have been shot most frequently in racially segregated neighborhoods \u2014 a legacy from the early twentieth century of state-sanctioned discrimination in housing, banking, and funding. These areas at present are suffering from air pollution from defunct city-run trash incinerators, garbage-strewn tons, dilapidated housing, poverty, and different issues that native leaders have been promising to repair for greater than 50 years.<\/p>\n

Almost all of the Florida ZIP codes with the very best charges of firearm accidents for kids have giant Black or Latino populations.<\/p>\n

Maybe nowhere is the toll of gun violence extra evident than at UF Well being Jacksonville, a security web hospital and the one Stage I trauma heart in northeastern Florida.<\/p>\n

As chief of acute care surgical procedure, Firas Madbak<\/a> sees firsthand the toll exacted by weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see it day in and day trip,\u201d Madbak mentioned. \u201cI\u2019m working tonight, and I think I\u2019ll see a pair victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jeffrey Goldhagen<\/a>, a UF Well being pediatrician and former well being director for Duval County, which incorporates Jacksonville, mentioned state and native leaders have failed to deal with what he referred to as the \u201croot causes\u201d of preventable firearm accidents and deaths, reminiscent of poverty, lack of alternative, and neglect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe underside line is no person offers a flying f\u2014 about these younger males,\u201d Goldhagen mentioned.<\/p>\n

Gun violence victims and their households face increased risk<\/a> of despair, nervousness, post-traumatic stress dysfunction, and different psychological well being issues.<\/p>\n

All through U.S. historical past, native governments have pushed industrial vegetation, oil refineries<\/a>, and highways by means of Black neighborhoods whilst research<\/a> linked<\/a> them<\/a> to elevated dangers of cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, most cancers, preterm births, and gun violence.<\/p>\n

However the Florida Division of Well being doesn’t concentrate on gun violence as a public well being menace, Goldhagen mentioned, regardless of its being the nation\u2019s leading cause of death<\/a> for kids and teenagers.<\/p>\n

The State Health Improvement Plan<\/a>, a set of targets developed by the well being division and an advisory committee, doesn’t point out weapons, the toll they tackle youngsters, or efforts to scale back firearm deaths and accidents to younger folks.<\/p>\n

As a substitute, its targets embody stopping or decreasing sudden sudden toddler deaths and youth drownings, emergency room visits for motorized vehicle crashes, and hospitalizations for traumatic mind accidents.<\/p>\n

And but, nobody with the authority to deal with this public well being disaster would agree to speak to KFF Well being Information about gun violence and its toll on Jacksonville\u2019s youngsters \u2014 not the Florida well being division, Gov. Ron DeSantis, Mayor Donna Deegan, or 18 of 19 members of the Jacksonville Metropolis Council.<\/p>\n