In Their Own Words

Most Child Gun Injuries And Deaths Occur in the Same Low-Opportunity Areas in Philly

More Investment in Opportunity Is Key, LDI Fellow Writes. Delays Put More Children And Teens At Risk Daily

January 27, 2025

By:

Anireddy Reddy, MD, MSHP

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The following excerpt is from an op-ed that first appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on January 24th, 2025.

Last year, the surgeon general declared that gun violence is a public health crisis, noting firearms are the leading cause of death in children and teens. Gun deaths of children and teens in our city are not random; almost all of them occur in low-child-opportunity neighborhoods.

It’s the difference between four pediatric gun injuries in Society Hill and 163 injuries in Strawberry Mansion — just five miles away — during the same eight-year time frame.

In my recent study, I analyzed pediatric firearm injury data for children and teens aged 0-19 years in Philadelphia, from 2015 to 2023. I found that children and teens who lived in a low-opportunity neighborhood were two and a half times more likely to sustain a gun injury, and were more likely to die from their injury.

In my study, I used the Child Opportunity Index — a composite index of indicators across health, education, physical environment, and socioeconomic status based on where children and teens live. While I expected many injuries would occur in low-opportunity neighborhoods, I was shocked to find almost all these injuries and deaths occurred in low-opportunity neighborhoods. We also found stark racial disparities: 97% of pediatric firearm injuries (and 96% of deaths) in Philadelphia were among Black and Hispanic children and teens.

Read the entire op-ed here.