Church fights gun violence by turning weapons into art

Oakland Tribune, Apr 26, 2004 by John Geluardi, CORRESPONDENT

OAKLAND -- About 30 parishioners from St. Elizabeth's Church in the Fruitvale district took a symbolic whack at gun violence Sunday by hammering handguns into art.

The gun-smashing event was sponsored by the Franciscan Justice, Peace & Integrity Office, which has been collecting handguns for the last two months in order to transform them into various sculptures, including an altar for gunshot victims.

According to Brother Martin Ibarra, the idea is to get guns off the streets and to make a symbolic gesture that will get people talking about the risks of gun ownership.

We want people to start thinking about the dangers of having a firearm in the home," Ibarra said. "We want to turn violence into peace. We want to turn instruments of death into instruments of hope."

He added that turning the guns into art was a step toward ending the gun violence that has plagued Oakland in recent years.

During 2003, there were 114 homicide vic-

tims in Oakland, the vast majority killed by gunfire. In the first four months of 2004, there have been 27 homicides victims, most of whom were also killed by gunfire.

Over the last two months, the Franciscans and the San Francisco- based nonprofit Guns Into Art collected 10 handguns.

John Ricker, the executive director of Guns Into Art, set up a small outdoor blacksmith workshop, complete with an 1,800-degree forge, anvil and 10-pound sledgehammer, in a parking lot across the street from the church. The guns were heated in the forge, and then parishioners were invited haul off and smash the glowing red guns flat.

Mary Brett was one of the first to swing the hammer. She said the act of smashing the gun was empowering.

"I felt like I was getting all this anger out about the level of violence in our community. It can be so overwhelming," she said. "I think this is a wonderful thing to do with guns. It's the only thing they're good for."

Ricker, a metal sculptor who also gives violence prevention lectures in Bay Area public schools, said one 9mm Beretta, which had its barrel nearly cut in half at the breach, was going to be incorporated into an altar.

Once completed, the altar will be placed outside St. Elizabeth's for those killed by gunfire.

On display in the parking lot was a mock, lattice coffin, which Guns Into Art volunteers had made entirely from rifles and handguns. Other artwork included a concrete stepping stone with the outline of a dove of peace made from copper and nickel shell casings and a giant metal peace sign made from military weapons.

Among the collected guns were two 9mm. semiautomatic Glock handguns that were donated by Angelo Sandoval. Sandoval exchanged a $1,000 debt for the weapons, which belonged to his two young cousins who had associations with Fruitvale gangs, though they were not gang members themselves.

"They were too young to have guns. They didn't know what to do with them," he said. "People think they have them for protection, and the next thing you know there is a stupid, drunken argument and somebody is shot and killed."

Sandoval said he decided to take action against guns last year when a friend became the innocent victim of a drive-by shooting. Rogelio Solis Higareda, 25, was killed last September when he ran from his fiancee's home on Mitchell Street to help a 17-year-old boy who had just been shot in what police believe was a gang-related shooting.

"I felt the sadness when someone is killed," Sandoval said. "He was a good person.