Growing up, I often heard gunfire. Why didn’t we talk about it?

It was a blazing hot summer day, and I was playing freeze tag with my cousins in front of my house. I was 13. My mom was sitting on a stoop nearby, talking to a neighbor, but still maintaining a watchful eye on us.

Everything was fine until I heard three loud bangs. Instantly, my mother’s demeanor changed and she screamed, “Get inside, now!”

I was confused and annoyed that my game of freeze tag was cut short. But my mother’s authority made me hurry toward the house. As I stepped inside, I asked her what was the matter, but all she responded was, “Don’t worry about it, they’re just fireworks. How about we continue playing inside?”

Looking back on it now, I know those weren’t fireworks. In our North Philadelphia neighborhood of Kensington, it was rarely just fireworks.

That day was the beginning of my realization there was something bigger going on, but I didn’t fully understand it. Gun violence wasn’t something the adults explained. I think the adults in my life wanted to pretend it didn’t exist. I want to believe they did what they thought was best.

But as I got older, I began to lose classmates to gun violence in my community. Often, they were either going to or coming from school when they were shot. It made me think twice. At a certain point, the world started to teach me things the adults couldn’t. Sometimes I would take a completely different route in an effort to avoid certain situations. A bus stop is just a bus stop until a classmate dies while standing there.

My neighborhood is nicknamed the “badlands” because of the prevalence of gun violence, drug-related violence, and other forms of violence. Still, I could tell you everything I love about Kensington: the food, the culture, the diversity, the hardworking people who live there and raise their families. I can’t imagine being born anywhere else.

A bus stop is just a bus stop until a classmate dies while standing there.

I moved to suburban Glenside, Pennsylvania, in 2021 to attend Arcadia University, where I’m studying media and communications. The campus is less than 10 miles from Kensington, but there’s a lot less poverty and violence. Despite the change of scenery, I just can’t forget where I grew up and the violence that punctuated my life there.

There are so many things happening in Philly that need to change: an opioid epidemic, high poverty rates, and community violence. No kid deserves to feel unsafe — not on their block, not in their school, and not in their neighborhood — but many kids are unsafe. Last year alone, gunfire killed 24 Philadelphia children and impacted many more .

If it weren’t for the things I experienced as a kid, I wouldn’t have my drive and my passion for change. Recently, I’ve become involved in gun violence prevention efforts.

This past year I worked as a student journalist and producer on a PBS News Student Reporting Labs documentary about the impacts of gun violence. I went out and documented my hometown, and I got to sit down and talk about real things I’ve seen growing up in Philadelphia. It has given me space to reflect on my experiences — experiences I know are common.

I’m extremely proud to share one story of an average city kid affected by gun violence. I hope other kids who experience these sorts of things know they have a voice. If I were to go back in time and tell my younger self that his voice mattered, it would’ve blown his mind.

As a student producer for this documentary, which premieres this week, I also interviewed Dr. Jessica Beard, a trauma surgeon at Temple University and the director of research at the Philadelphia Center for Gun Prevention. Dr. Beard told me that universal background checks and permitting help prevent gun homicides and that child access prevention laws and extreme risk protection orders can help curb unintentional firearm injury and suicides.

“I think one concern that people feel is that this is political,” she said. “But the truth is that we have evidence that these things can save lives.”

After the interview, I felt seen and heard. It was amazing talking to a researcher who studies a topic that’s so close to home for me. She reiterated how much gun violence is preventable and that we “don’t have to live like this.” I left feeling more hopeful than before.

Working on this student-produced documentary about how gun violence affects young people has allowed me to talk about a serious issue that affects communities like mine. Conversations about gun violence and how to reduce it aren’t something everyone wants to hear, but we can’t change anything about it if we ignore the problem. These conversations are important because people’s lives are important.

Ethan Rodriguez attends Arcadia University and is a student producer of ”Run, Hide, Fight: Growing up under the gun,” a PBS News Student Reporting Labs documentary that premieres Oct. 9 on the PBS News YouTube channel, PBS app, and PBS.org .