Fourteen years ago Dr. Erinma Bell and her husband Raymond witnessed a close friend being shot in front of them,” manchestereveningnews.com reports. “The friend survived but they then went on to set up Carisma (Community Alliance for Renewal, Inner South Manchester Area) to give young people positive alternatives to street and gun crime.” And now . . .
She has been honoured by [Salford University’s] Guns to Goods, a group, which converts illegal firearms into art to celebrate inspirational stories. . .
The piece was originally set in clay before the guns seized by police and handed in during amnesties were used to create the final sculpture.
Erinma said art is the best possible use of guns.
She said: “It is very flattering. When the artist first asked me I thought ‘why me?’.
“But it’s great for me and my children to see it. My kids are really proud. When they first saw it they were like ‘wow!’. It’s a beautiful creation.
The News obviously agrees, headlining their article ‘This could be the best use of guns we’ve ever seen.’ I reckon a defensive gun use against a criminal or a tyrannical government is the best use of a gun I’ve ever seen. But what do I know? I live in The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, not The Land of Hope and Glory.
Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said: “The number of firearm-related incidents remains incredibly low in comparison to its peak in 2007/2008, and the public should be reassured that we are working hard every day to deter and dismantle this selfish and reckless criminal behaviour.
“We can’t do it alone however, which is why inspiring individuals such as Erinma are so crucial to supporting our communities, reducing gun crime and saving lives.”
True, but….
My friend gets shot and I turn it into art? Hope she never has another come to jesus moment. As bad as she misread the first she may not survive another.
It’s a horrible casting on top of being a statement of foolishness. All that porosity makes it look like she is suffering from some horrible skin disease, I’d toss this back into the forge works for sure.
And on top of that, this effort did exactly zero in terms of actually reducing criminal use of guns. Those crims who would have potentially bought these guns simply bought other guns.
These fools want to put the genie back into the bottle, unfortunately none of them seem to be aware of the well known fact that this cannot be done.
Idiots.
I’m all for art, but to me the best use of a gun is in the defense of an innocent human being.
Most of my guns ARE beautiful art, no need to convert them to something else.
Yes. Some nice walnut shaped into a great stock, stained, checkered by hand. Inset by richly blues steel… Now that’s art
I can think of a couple million better uses every year. The ones where the guns are used to prevent a crime. You know, where somebody’s life and livelihood is actually, exactly, tangibly enhanced by the use of their gun. Yea. Each of those is a better use than art.
I’d bet there are seven figures’ worth of veterans and a few million civilian gun owners who can each come up with personal stories of guns being used better than being melted for a mediocre-at-best casting.
The most recent ” best use” was the three drug lords in paris when the db jihadist tried to shoot up the restaurant.
That’s my best use award beside all the other dgu out there!
This makes me think of the Colt Python sculpture with a knotted barrel. I think it’s in NYC. I’m one lottery win away from putting together a team for a clandestine night operation where we fix that sculpture by cutting the knot out and make it into a sculpture of a python with a 4 inch barrel.
Then we change the “non-violence” inscription to “Freedom”
Always been a fantasy of mine.
I believe it stands outside the UN building in New York City.
It’s an abomination to any freedom loving citizen!
Yeah, I always called it Buntline Special Python considering lenght of the barrel before knotting.
Nope, that mission was a complete waste of time in Borderlands:ThePresequel. Not impressed.
Well, I like it that she’s worked with these kids to help show them more constructive uses of their lives than the destructive gang subculture.
However, focussing ire and attention on inanimate guns only undercuts her message and mission that human choices matter.
Here’s my nominee for one of the best uses of a gun, ever:
https://youtu.be/QLmnTOQ2YpM
Agreed. Easily at number 1. Perhaps TTAG should do a top 10. Who’s number 2? My first thought is when Bin Laden got iced.
The icing of bin Laden is debateable. Buried at sea? Unarmed and killed? Chance of interagation gone? Then theres the flip side, he worked with U.S. once, maybe he was working for the U.S. then.
Unarmed when killed? Hell, a bullet to the face was nice. I would of personally chained that son of a bitch up to the back of my truck a s drove him down a gravel road. Just how much of a liberal pussy are you?
The anti’s are the real deal, glass half full, pessimist pinheads. When they see guns, at least those in the hands of regular Joe’s, they only see the bad, the criminal violence, and the worst of what guns represent. They embrace this as their only view, and are unwilling to admit that they’re only looking at one side of the coin. What would their feelings be if a good guy with a gun had shot the attacker and prevented their friends shooting?
I guess instead of standing off and shooting someone( which is a whole lot safer ) you just get a lot closer and beat them to death with it. At least it still kinda fulfills it’s original purpose, besides it is still somewhat scary looking……….
Thats funny, lol,
Guns are allready art, exspecially the ones that punch nice little clover leafs….. This is bad, but I wouldnt mind taking that bust out n doing a little art work on it.
Hitler blowing his own brains out was a pretty good use, too…
So, wait, Medusa is anti-gun? Doesn’t make sense, she’s got a whole head full of assault snakes that shoot laserbeams which turn you to stone…
Statue FAIL.
Hey I’m all for art(I deal art and antiques) but this is just pathetic.
i think it should be turned into 80% lowers…
Well, taking guns away from thugs, crazies, and terrorists is a pretty good thing. The other thing is nobody “wants” to use a gun defensively.
Because intentions to harm remain among thugs, crazies, and terrorists with or without guns, sometimes using a gun defensively is the least bad choice.
One hopes the guns repurposed as art were taken from ill-intentioned thugs n etc. rather than would-be defenders. Sadly, that’s not how it works.
I think the best use of a gun in this story would have been to shoot the b g in the face before he shot up the lady’s friend. But, that’s just me.
I suppose they had to use the guns because gangsters don’t melt or cast as well.
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