Or, more precisely, guns into guitars. A Colombian craftsman has been turning old guns into guitars for several years. He sees it as a way to turn negative energy into positive energy.
One of Colombia's top musical instrument makers, (Luis Alberto) Paredes has branched out from traditional methods to fashion electric guitars from shotguns and AK47 rifles once used by fighters caught up in the country's lingering guerilla conflict.
"This used to hit a target at 800 meters (yards)," Paredes said holding up one of the guitars which still has a Kalashnikov rifle's distinctive, banana-shaped magazine. "Now the target will just depend on the concert stage."
In a workshop above his modest family home in Bogota, Paredes has created the "escopetarras" — shotgun guitars in Spanish — since he was approached by local musician Cesar Lopez with the idea about three years ago.
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A self-taught artisan who made his first guitar in 1959 while still in school, Paredes now works with three of his four children in a family business cluttered with tools and sawdust from partially made guitars, four-string cuatros and violins.
His instruments are sought by musicians worldwide.
As part of a United Nations program to promote peace, Paredes receives the decommissioned rifles with the working parts wielded together for safety.
After stripping the soldering and gutting the trigger mechanism, he crafts a polished wooden handle over the barrel and his son installs microphones in the stock. The process takes a week to ten days.
"At first it was a challenge," he said. "It's a paradox to take something that kills and transform it into something to please people."
Under a peace plan initiated by Uribe, more than 30,000 illegal paramilitary fighters have handed over their weapons and demobilized. But the Marxist rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC still has 17,000 fighters.
Authorities say hundreds of demobbed militia combatants have returned to criminal gangs dedicated to cocaine trafficking and extortion.
Well, it's at least a nice idea. At least as a symbolic gesture. The idea isn't exactly new, though. Although I suspect the Motor City Madman would not want a non-firing one.
