More Stupidity

This story makes me physically ill.

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Guns melted for peace

Yakub Qureshi
26/ 2/2008

ILLEGAL firearms seized by police in Greater Manchester are being turned into symbols of peace.

The weapons have been melted down to create special coins commemorating the victims of gun crime.

Each coin is marked with 55 notches - a poignant tribute to the 55 people killed by gunmen in Greater Manchester over the last eight years.

Firearms confiscated by GMP or handed in during amnesties are normally destroyed.

But anti-violence campaigners have joined forces with Salford University to launch the Guns into Goods scheme, which will see a number of seized weapons smelted and transformed into usable commodities.

The Manchester Peace Coins are the first items to be created as part of the three-year scheme. The coins will be sold to raise cash to help fight crime and also to fund activities to divert youngsters from a life of crime.

An exclusive first edition coin will be auctioned off at a special event at the City of Manchester Stadium on March 8th.

Gun culture

Paul Haywood, a metalwork expert from the university's school of art and design, who has overseen the project, said youngsters who were at risk of drifting into gang culture would be asked to take part in future projects. He said: "With this project we hope to engage with young people from the Manchester metropolitan area who are at greatest risk of becoming involved in gang and gun culture - as victims, witnesses or offenders.

"We want to convert the ideas of young people in the community into creative and original products that can be manufactured from smelted gun metals."

Specialist equipment at the university is used to breakdown and melt the disabled weapons, including smelters capable of reaching fiery temperatures of up to 1,500C.

Erinma Bell, founder of campaign group Carisma, said that as well as equipping youngsters with new skills, the scheme would deliver a symbolic message for peace.

She said: "This is a brand new project and the first to directly target the physical destruction of guns.

"The goal is a sustained campaign of positive work with communities and schools to develop creative opportunities for young people to join in the efforts to raise awareness, counter gun crime and remove guns from the streets."

The proceeds from the sale will pay for a monument to be erected in Manchester's Peace Garden and will also fund further youth activities in the city.

Shoot a machine gun, Raise money for the GOP

GOP fundraiser to feature machine gun shoot

By SCOTT BROOKS
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
Tuesday, Jul. 24, 2007

MANCHESTER – City Republicans will be packing some serious firepower at their next party fundraiser.

Tired of the usual chicken dinners, the Manchester Republican Committee is planning to arm supporters next month with Uzis, M-16 rifles and other automatic weapons for a day of target practice at a Pelham firing range.

"The thought just struck me one day: a machine gun shoot. What the heck?" said Jerry Thibodeau, the committee chairman.

Thibodeau, who is himself a hunter and skeet shooter, pitched the Aug. 5 event as a fun social gathering, as well as a demonstration of the party's support for Second Amendment rights.

The concept prompted shudders across the political aisle. Chris Pappas, the city Democratic party chairman, called the event "not just in poor taste; it is downright offensive."

"The citizens of Manchester have lived through a deadly spike in violent crime the past year-and-a-half, despite the campaign promises of (Mayor) Frank Guinta to lower crime rates," Pappas said. "That the mayor's political party would seek to glorify the use of machine guns for political gain is unconscionable."

The GOP fundraiser will be held at the Pelham Fish and Game Club. Proceeds, Thibodeau said, will be split among the party, the club and the gun supplier.

Republican party leaders are hoping for a strong showing of both novices and experienced shooters. The cost to participants is $25, plus fees for ammunition and parking.

Each of the Republican Presidential candidates was invited, Thibodeau said, but all declined, saying they'll be busy preparing for the following weekend's much-ballyhooed straw poll in Ames, Iowa.

"I really tried to get Rudy Giuliani there," Thibodeau said. "Because I'll tell you, this is a guy that can't relax."

Bob Shaunessy, who chairs the Pelham club's class-3 weapons committee, says he expects shooters will get to select from a range of submachine guns, including Uzis, MAC-11s and Swedish K's, as well as M-16 and AR-15 rifles.

Twenty safety experts, called "range officers," will be on hand to load the guns and monitor the shooters, Shaunessy said. On-site instruction will be required for all participants.

"My first and foremost goal is that everybody who walks in walks out," Thibodeau said.

Few may be more excited about the event than the man who conceived it.

Thibodeau, who recently celebrated his 60th birthday, said he has not fired a machine gun in 40 years.

A Seacoast native, Thibodeau was exposed to guns at an early age. His father, he said, was a machine gunner in Guadalcanal during World War II.

Thibodeau's own experience with machine guns began at 18, he said, when a friend and his father took him out to fire rounds in a sand pit.

The experience, he said, was powerful.

"It's a way of expressing yourself, I guess," he said. "We all have a little testosterone in us, right?"

And yet, he said, many of the people responding to the event advertisements have been women.

The city committee's executive director, Kelly Hurst, said she, too, is excited about the chance to fire a machine gun for the first time.

No stranger to guns, Hurst said she carries a small pistol for personal protection, but notes, "I've never felt a need to carry a machine gun down the street with me."

"It's very different," Hurst said. "I don't know when anyone else, man or woman, may get an opportunity to do this."

Manchester Republicans have several other social events in the works. The committee recently launched a monthly mixer, known as "Thirsty Thursdays," at Murphy's Tap Room on Elm Street.

Other events are more family-friendly. A Sept. 16 rally at Veterans Park will include face painting, rock climbing and, Thibodeau said, an inflatable "moon walker."

"It's about people meeting people," Thibodeau said. "Get the heck away from the computer, get the heck away from work. Come on out and talk to people."