The root causes of gun violence

2021 is on track to be Philadelphia’s deadliest year due to the disturbing rise in gun violence. We'll discuss the root causes of gun violence and effective interventions.

Listen 49:31
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

2021 is on track to be Philadelphia’s deadliest year due to the disturbing rise in gun violence. There have been 500 shootings and 103 people have been murdered. And 9 out of 10 victims are people of color. This hour, we look at gun violence as a public health crisis as a way to understand why people are resorting to killing one another. We’ll talk about poverty, structural racism, and neighborhood blight, the role of social media, and what interventions are proving effective. Our guests are DR. RUTH ABAYA, a pediatric ER physician who  manages the new Injury Prevention Dashboard for the Philadelphia Department of Public Heath which tracks violence and accidental injury data. We’re also joined by TYRIQUE GLASGOW, a gun violence survivor and founder and executive director Young Chances Foundation in South Philly, and by DR. EUGENIA SOUTH, faculty director of the Urban Health Lab at the University of Pennsylvania.

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