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Stories about kids, guns and how to stop the violence. Precious Lives, created by 371 Productions, is a 2-year, 100-part weekly radio series about gun violence and young people in the Milwaukee area. The series applies a public health lens to each story to help listeners understand the full scope of the problem: who are the victims and the shooters; how are the weapons obtained; and what can we change about the environment that contributes to violence in Milwaukee?

#080 Precious Lives: You’re A Man, Fight Through It

Courtesy of Derrick Shoates
17-year-old Tommie plays all positions on the Running Rebels basketball team. He got shot in the leg March 2016, and is trying to build up strength to play basketball like he used to.

17-year-old Tommie Harbin was never in a gang, never dealt drugs, never carried a gun. Avoiding violence never seemed that hard.

Tommie kept busy. Mostly, he played basketball. Because when he plays basketball, he feels most like himself.

Still Tommie got shot. And now he has to rely on the same mental toughness - the kind that earned him recognition as a basketball star to bounce back. But it’s not easy.

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