Due to the escalating gun violence in Ohio and unwanted firearms on their street, First Community Church has been collecting guns and disabling those who have securely surrendered to them. Following this action, the firearms are repurposed as works of art.
Unwanted Gus Turns into Pieces of Art
First Community Church has spent years removing unwanted firearms from the community by collecting them when handed over safely and then disarming them. Based on a report from 10 WBNS, people from around the central region of Ohio have been allowed to have their firearms disarmed and removed from their possession with no questions asked. After that, the firearms are repurposed into works of art and displayed in the chapel. Many individuals reportedly find that experience therapeutic. According to Pastor Tim Vansant, they have accumulated about fifty firearms for artistic usage.
In addition to removing firearms from circulation, the church is working to broaden the scope of the discussion surrounding the secure storage of firearms and the issue of gun violence in our community. As mentioned, a gun-safe storage event will be held at the church on Thursday evening, June 8, since the movement has become so widespread over the past year. A panel discussion regarding the issue of gun violence in the neighborhood will also take place. Accordingly, many of the guns turned them have a stimulating influence on specific individuals, and they want to contribute to the ongoing discussion about how this affects everyone.
On the other hand, a similar situation was reported by ABC News. Scott Lapham, an artist, and teacher living in Rhode Island, reportedly said that he was deeply worried by the growing prevalence of gun violence and desired to do something to reflect his sensitive emotions over the problem. As a result, he obtained his gun owner's license and purchased a semiautomatic handgun.
However, he had no plan of actually employing it in a violent manner or even glorifying violence. Instead, according to Lapham, he disabled the pistol, created a cast out of it, and then collaborated with his students to build sculptures of various materials, including glass, crayon wax, ice, and more. Lapham explained that his students would employ that mold to build new sculptures out of various materials. Crayons and crayon wax were used to construct several sculptures that depicted the pistol. Another one was designed to resemble a pencil and was meant to represent that youngsters are becoming aware of the dangers of gun violence at too young.
Furthermore, this message is currently on display at the WaterFire Arts Center in Providence as part of a month-long "Merge" installation open to the general public to examine and ponder. The exhibit showcases a body of work created by Lapham as part of his "One Gun Gone" project over seven years, some of which is a brand-new metal sculpture made from firearms that have only recently been rendered inoperable.
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Gun Violence in Ohio
The Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence stated that if the present frequency of homicides by gun continues at the numbers demonstrated in Ohio during the spring and summer of 2020 (when COVID-19 was high), it is anticipated that one out of every one hundred Ohio children will die as a result of a gunshot wound. This discovery, along with others, was made as part of a study by Ashwini Sehgal, MD of Case Western Reserve University, and published in the May 2020 American Journal of Medicine issue. The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research's November 2017 study on concealed weapon laws found that 30 states and the District of Columbia "shall" issue permits for concealed carry to anyone who is permitted to possess a handgun in that state.
Additional criteria can differ from state to state. Yet, states that adhere to this policy are called "shall issue" or right-to-carry (RTC) states. These eight states are referred to as "may issue" states because they enable public safety personnel to maintain some discretion when deciding whether or not to issue a handgun permit. These states are called "permitless" states because they do not require a concealed weapon permit in their jurisdictions. The term "shall issue" applies to the state of Ohio. Based on a study released in July 2020, lax concealed-carry regulations are associated with increased firearm homicides, which can lead to an 11% rise in a state's overall gun homicide rate.
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