Precious Lives

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?

#031 Precious Lives: What Young People Know About Guns

WUWM 89.7 FM

Published August 11, 2015 at 10:34 AM CDT

Youth at the Allied Drive Boys and Girls Club talk about their experiences with guns. From right to left: Monteara Jones, 13; Taquirria Smith, 12; and Taylor Marbley, 11.

In Wisconsin, lots of kids get early exposure to guns. At outdoor stores, you can get pint-size pink rifles to teach kids how to hunt. But sometimes kids get hold of guns illegally, usually from friends and family.

Sometimes they hurt themselves - or each other. Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism reporters Kate Golden and Sean Kirkby walked through metal detectors of a Boys and Girls Club in the Allied Drive neighborhood, near Madison, to ask the kids what they know about guns.