Критика The Trace: рост числа раненых детей во Флориде обусловлен локальной криминальной обстановкой, а не законодательством

Two weeks ago today, I wrote about how all of Florida's major cities had fewer murders combined at that point this year than Chicago had during the same period. It was kind of telling, especially when you think about Florida's gun laws. They're not perfect, but it's a damn sight better than Illinois. For The Trace, though, that seemed to create the assignment to make it like Florida is the really dangerous locale. Only, they didn't manage that at all. 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 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, 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. 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. Except, we should note that these are all the highest rates in Florida. The comparison is Florida zip codes with other Florida zip codes. We already know the murder rate is lower per capita than anti-gun Chicago, but The Trace didn't look at that. And instead, they tried to make it about racism. Yes, many of these neighborhoods were where black families were basically relegated during segregation. That system ended more than half a century ago. Instead of people moving on, these neighborhoods have become bastions of gang activity. That raises the specter of violent crime, and it's not dependent on lax gun laws. Basically, even by The Trace standards, this is a pathetic piece of so-called journalism because it's so blatantly myopic. Their own data shows these are high-crime neighborhoods compared to the rest of the state. A state, I might add, that has the same gun control laws everywhere. In other words, the problem isn't supposedly lax gun laws because the supposed symptom isn't remotely universal. Then we have to account for Chicago all over again. The Trace is attacking these rates in Jacksonville, but they leave out that violent crime in Florida is down 16.5 percent over this time last year. They also neglect to mention that Jacksonville's murder rate is down a whopping 36.6 percent. That doesn't fit the narrative. That doesn't sell gun control. Someone quoted in the piece claims that Florida has no plan to reduce so-called gun violence. Frankly, if that's true, then they need to keep having no plan, because that approach is working to an insane degree, all things considered. Maybe it's time they consider doing something other than playing the race card and making it about ethnicity when it's not, nor is it about gun control, because if it was, Florida's improvement wouldn't be leaps and bounds better than Illinois.