---
title: "Florida ZIP Codes Where Gun Violence Disproportionately Harms Black and Latino Children"
id: "kff-health-news-0-where-florida-s-gun-violence-exacts-its-biggest-toll-on-black-and-latino"
canonical_url: "https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/kff-health-news-0-where-florida-s-gun-violence-exacts-its-biggest-toll-on-black-and-latino"
content_type: "clinical_feed_article"
specialty: "Pediatrics"
source_name: "KFF Health News"
source_url: "https://kffhealthnews.org/public-health/florida-gun-violence-kids-data-analysis-jacksonville-black-latino-disparities/"
published_at: "2026-08-25T09:00:00.000Z"
evidence_level: "Verified Feed"
license: "CC-BY-NC-4.0 / Informational Use"
---
# Florida ZIP Codes Where Gun Violence Disproportionately Harms Black and Latino Children
## Provenance & Clinical Metadata
- **Canonical URL:** https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/kff-health-news-0-where-florida-s-gun-violence-exacts-its-biggest-toll-on-black-and-latino
- **Specialty:** [Pediatrics](https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/pediatrics.md)
- **Primary Source:** KFF Health News
- **Source URL:** [Original Journal Publication](https://kffhealthnews.org/public-health/florida-gun-violence-kids-data-analysis-jacksonville-black-latino-disparities/)
- **Published At:** 2026-08-25T09:00:00.000Z
- **Evidence Rating:** Verified Feed
## Executive GIST (TL;DR)
- KFF Health News and The Trace analyzed Florida hospital billing data from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration covering 2018–2024. The data show more than **4,000 children** (age 17 and younger) were hospitalized for firearm injuries in that period — roughly **1.5 children per day**. - Hospitalizations are highly concentrated: a small number of **ZIP codes**, almost all in **Jacksonville**, **Orlando**, **Miami**, or **Tampa Bay**, account for a disproportionate share of pediatric firearm injuries. Three Jacksonville ZIP codes rank among the 10 worst in the state. - Nearly all ZIP codes with the highest rates have large **Black** or **Latino** populations. The analysis links these patterns to long-standing racial segregation and disinvestment, local environmental hazards, poverty, and other social determinants. - UF Health Jacksonville, the region’s only Level I trauma center, saw 255 gunshot wound patients in 2024, including **32 patients aged 17 or younger**, illustrating the clinical burden on safety-net care. - The State Health Improvement Plan does not mention gun violence or strategies to reduce firearm injuries among children. State leaders, including the governor’s office and the state health department, declined to discuss gun violence with the reporting newsrooms. - Florida has permissive gun policies, including a law allowing concealed carry without a permit; state law prevents local governments from enacting stricter gun safety measures. Research cited in the story associates more permissive state policies with higher pediatric firearm death rates. - ZIP code–level mapping and tables in the analysis show rates per 100,000 children; ZIP codes with 1–10 youth hospitalizations are suppressed or represented as ranges to comply with privacy rules. - Community responses include memorials such as Jacksonville’s “Wall of Compassion,” and local advocates say municipal attention and resources are lacking in neighborhoods with the highest pediatric firearm injury rates. - The reporting reflects patient counts, place of residence, age, race and other demographics from hospital billing records; the dataset is deidentified and intended for payment collection and administrative reporting.
## Clinical Analysis & Structured Key Points
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A man walks by a mural along Myrtle Avenue in Jacksonville, Florida, on Sept. 21, 2023. Residents have felt the pain of gun violence ripple through their community: Three Jacksonville ZIP codes rank among the 10 worst in the state for firearm injuries involving children. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images) [ Guns, Race, and Profit ](https://kffhealthnews.org/series/guns-race-and-profit/) # Where Florida’s Gun Violence Exacts Its Biggest Toll on Black and Latino Children Our analysis found that firearm injuries of children in Florida disproportionately hit families in a handful of ZIP codes, almost all of them in Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami, or Tampa Bay. By [Daniel Chang](https://kffhealthnews.org/author/daniel-chang/), [Fred Clasen-Kelly](https://kffhealthnews.org/author/fred-clasen-kelly/), [Olga Pierce, The Trace](https://kffhealthnews.org/author/olga-pierce-the-trace/), [Yona Gavino, Action News Jax](https://kffhealthnews.org/author/yona-gavino-action-news-jax/), and [Daralene Jones, WFTV](https://kffhealthnews.org/author/daralene-jones-wftv/) Aug. 25, 2026 Republish JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Just west of the St. Johns River, which divides this sprawling city racially and economically, 2-year-old A’mahri Robinson was murdered in his mother’s arms. [ ![Partner logo](https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2026/05/the-trace-logo.png?w=500) ](https://www.thetrace.org/) This story also ran on [The Trace](https://www.thetrace.org/). It can be [republished for free](https://kffhealthnews.org/republish/public-health/florida-gun-violence-kids-data-analysis-jacksonville-black-latino-disparities/). * * * ![](https://preprod.kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2026/08/combined-CMG-logos-Jax-Guns.png) This story was also produced in collaboration with [Action News Jax](https://www.actionnewsjax.com/) and [WFTV](https://www.wftv.com/). Ladonna Johnson was rocking A’mahri to sleep in March when he was shot in the head with a gun she kept for protection. A’mahri loved going outdoors and taking rides in his pull-along wagon. His mother called the toddler “sweet” and “affectionate.” When he was around, she said, “you just felt love.” The child was close with Steven Dodson Jr., his mother’s boyfriend, who had reached for the gun during an argument. Dodson, 21, in June [pleaded guilty](https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/jacksonville-man-pleads-guilty-killing-2-year-old-boy-sentenced-life-prison/KGUVEKZMEJGCNO3NHJZPTYUUKE/) to murder and aggravated child abuse and was sentenced to life in prison. A’mahri died in one of Florida’s most violent places for children: Jacksonville. This city has three ZIP codes that rank among the 10 worst in the state for firearm injuries involving children. ![A photo of a two-year-old standing outside.](https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2026/08/Robinson.jpg?w=840)Two-year-old A’mahri Robinson was murdered while in his mother’s arms in March. (Ladonna Johnson) Every year, hundreds of children are hospitalized in Florida with gunshot wounds, and overwhelmingly, they come from a tiny number of ZIP codes, an exclusive analysis of hospital data by KFF Health News and The Trace found. Hospital billing data obtained from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration shows that from 2018 to 2024 more than 4,000 children 17 or younger were hospitalized for firearm injuries — a rate of about 1.5 a day. The newsrooms [gathered data](https://kffhealthnews.org/public-health/florida-hospitals-guns-gunshot-firearm-wounds-uninsured-discharge-data-analysis/) that the state’s hospitals use to collect payments from insurance companies or the government. The information does not identify patients but includes details about where they lived and their age, race, and other demographics. The number of children killed in Jacksonville has grown so large that [a nonprofit](https://fosci.org/gallery), Families of Slain Children, built a “Wall of Compassion” memorial listing hundreds of people killed by gunfire in the city. Memorial organizers have stood up a second wall nearby that is filling with names. ![A photo shows a length of white wall on a square of grass. Crosses line the top of the wall. Names are written on the wall.](https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2026/08/Wall-of-Compassion.jpg)The Jacksonville nonprofit Families of Slain Children has built a memorial called the “Wall of Compassion” that lists the names of hundreds of people who have been killed by gun violence in the city. (Daniel Chang/KFF Health News) The numbers reflect how Florida’s long history of racial discrimination and permissive gun laws undermine public health, said researchers, public officials, community activists, and grieving parents. Jacksonville kids were shot most often in racially segregated neighborhoods — a legacy from the early 20th century of state-sanctioned discrimination in housing, banking, and investment. These areas today are plagued by pollution from defunct city-run trash incinerators, garbage-strewn lots, dilapidated housing, poverty, and other problems that local leaders have been promising to fix for more than 50 years. Nearly all the Florida ZIP codes with the highest rates of firearm injuries for children have large Black or Latino populations. Perhaps nowhere is the toll of gun violence more evident than at UF Health Jacksonville, a safety net hospital and the only Level I trauma center in northeastern Florida. As chief of acute care surgery, [Firas Madbak](https://surgery.med.jax.ufl.edu/profile/madbak-firas/) sees firsthand the toll exacted by guns. “You see it day in and day out,” Madbak said. “I’m working tonight, and I suspect I’ll see a couple victims.” ![A table of Florida zip codes with city and county columns, ranked by the number of under-18 gunshot wound patients from 2018 through 2024. A column of the rate of U18 GSW patients per 100k children per year is shaded blue, darker for higher rates, lighter for lower ones.](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/xLEO1/full.png) Florida ZIP Codes With Highest Youth Gunshot Wound Hospitalizations A table of Florida zip codes with city and county columns, ranked by the number of under-18 gunshot wound patients from 2018 through 2024. A column of the rate of U18 GSW patients per 100k children per year is shaded blue, darker for higher rates, lighter for lower ones. ZIP codes with 1-10 youth GSW hospitalizations over the 2018-2024 period are omitted due to privacy laws. GSW = gunshot wound Florida Agency for Health Care Administration [Jeffrey Goldhagen](https://pediatrics.med.jax.ufl.edu/profile/goldhagen-jeffrey/), a UF Health pediatrician and former health director for Duval County, which includes Jacksonville, said state and local leaders have failed to address what he called the “root causes” of preventable firearm injuries and deaths, such as poverty, lack of opportunity, and neglect. “The bottom line is nobody gives a flying f— about these young men,” Goldhagen said. Gun violence victims and their families [face increased risk](https://hms.harvard.edu/news/hidden-cost-firearm-injuries) of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health problems. Throughout U.S. history, local governments have pushed industrial plants, [oil refineries](https://naacp.org/resources/fumes-across-fence-line-health-impacts-air-pollution-oil-gas-facilities-african-american), and highways through Black neighborhoods even as [research](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12988906/#Abs1) [linked](https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2022-11/The%20Polluted%20Life%20Near%20the%20Highway.pdf) [them](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12111558/) to increased risks of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer, preterm births, and gun violence. But the Florida Department of Health does not focus on gun violence as a public health threat, Goldhagen said, despite its being the nation’s [leading cause of death](https://www.cdc.gov/firearm-violence/php/research-summaries/children-and-teen-impacts.html) for children and teens. The [State Health Improvement Plan](https://floridaship.org/), a set of goals developed by the health department and an advisory committee, does not mention guns, the toll they take on children, or efforts to reduce firearm deaths and injuries to young people. Instead, its goals include preventing or reducing sudden unexpected infant deaths and youth drownings, emergency room visits for motor vehicle crashes, and hospitalizations for traumatic brain injuries. And yet, no one with the authority to address this public health crisis would agree to talk to KFF Health News about gun violence and its toll on Jacksonville’s children — not the Florida health department, Gov. Ron DeSantis, Mayor Donna Deegan, or 18 of 19 members of the Jacksonville City Council. ([Action News Jax](https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/behind-numbers-jacksonville-mothers-remember-sons-lost-gun-violence/3KQKBTEOWRAQNAW3VJ5CBKJEYI/)) ![Newsletter Icon](https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/plugins/kff-shared/dist//images/newsletter-icon.png) #### Email Sign-Up Subscribe to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing. Your Email Address Sign Up Only Council member Jimmy Peluso responded. Peluso said the city has long ignored the needs of neighborhoods with high rates of firearm injuries among children. “A lot of these neighborhoods have just felt like the wealth has left them,” he said, “and the city didn’t come in to put in the amount of work they needed to.” DeSantis, a Republican, in public comments has called for few limits on how people purchase or carry firearms. He [signed a bill](https://www.flgov.com/eog/news/press/2023/governor-ron-desantis-signs-hb-543-constitutional-carry) to allow Floridians to carry concealed weapons without a permit. When then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared firearm violence a public health crisis in 2024, DeSantis called the advisory an “[unconstitutional power-grab](https://x.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1806004132580360650).” DeSantis said Florida would not follow the advisory, which recommended policies including universal background checks for gun purchases and requirements for secure storage. DeSantis spokesperson Molly Best declined an interview request and to answer questions about the governor’s gun policies. “There isn’t an agenda to end gun violence in the state of Florida,” said Jean Francis, a former pediatric nurse who leads the Jacksonville chapter of Moms Demand Action, part of a nonprofit that advocates for stronger firearm laws. Research has linked increases in pediatric gun deaths from 2011 to 2023 to state-level gun policies. States with permissive gun policies, such as “stand your ground” and open carry laws, reported higher rates of firearm deaths among children than states with strict regulations, such as weapon and age restrictions, according to a [study in JAMA Pediatrics](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2834530). The study ranked Florida among a group of 30 states with the most permissive gun policies. Four states with comparatively strict gun laws — California, Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island — saw a decrease in pediatric gun deaths over the same time period. [Florida law](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.npr.org/2018/04/02/598042099/in-florida-cities-challenge-state-on-gun-regulation-laws&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1787162769014668&usg=AOvVaw0OrOoqMtxftwZgQnF7qHSz) prevents cities and counties from enacting stricter gun safety measures. [Research shows](https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/08/kids-in-disadvantaged-areas-face-up-to-20-times-higher-odds-of-gun-injuries) kids in disadvantaged neighborhoods are up to 20 times more likely to suffer firearm injuries than their peers in the most advantaged areas. “It’s disheartening,” Madbak said. UF Health Jacksonville treated 255 patients for gunshot wounds in 2024, including 32 who were 17 or younger, he said. ![A zip code choropleth map of Florida shaded in blue by gunshot hospitalizations per 100k children. Shade buckets are: No cases, 0-7, 7-21,21-44,44-79,79-140, Population too small. Click the city names to visit those regions and see zip codes with smaller geographic areas.](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/VwhBo/full.png) In Some Florida Neighborhoods, Child Gunshot Hospitalizations Are Common A zip code choropleth map of Florida shaded in blue by gunshot hospitalizations per 100k children. Shade buckets are: No cases, 0-7, 7-21,21-44,44-79,79-140, Population too small. Click the city names to visit those regions and see zip codes with smaller geographic areas. ZIP codes with 1-10 hospitalizations have data suppressed or represented as ranges to comply with privacy laws. GSW = gunshot wound Florida Agency for Health Care Administration In Some Broward County Neighborhoods, Child Gunshot Hospitalizations Are Common A zip code choropleth map of the Fort Lauderdale area shaded in blue by gunshot hospitalizations per 100k children. Shade buckets are: No cases, 0-7, 7-21, 21-44, 44-79, 79-140, Population too small. Click the city names to visit those regions and see zip codes with smaller geographic areas. ZIP codes with 1-10 hospitalizations have data suppressed or represented as ranges to comply with privacy laws. GSW = gunshot wound Florida Agency for Health Care Administration In Some Duval County Neighborhoods, Child Gunshot Hospitalizations Are Common A zip code choropleth map of the Jacksonville area shaded in blue by gunshot hospitalizations per 100k children. Shade buckets are: No cases, 0-7, 7-21,21-44,44-79,79-140, Population too small. Click the city names to visit those regions and see zip codes with smaller geographic areas. ZIP codes with 1-10 hospitalizations have data suppressed or represented as ranges to comply with privacy laws. GSW = gunshot wound Florida Agency for Health Care Administration In Some Miami-Dade County Neighborhoods, Child Gunshot Hospitalizations Are Common A ZIP code choropleth map of the Miami area shaded in blue by gunshot hospitalizations per 100k children. Shade buckets are: No cases, 0-7, 7-21,21-44,44-79,79-140, Population too small. Click the city names to visit those regions and see zip codes with smaller geographic areas. ZIP codes with 1-10 hospitalizations have data suppressed or represente
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