RAWtools: Nonprofit that melts down guns to forge garden tools.

The NY Times wrote an article on RAWtools.org … "RAW" being WAR backwards.

Founded by Mike Martin, the stated objective is to repurpose weapons into hand tools.


For instance in 2013 a gun-owner in Colorado Springs felt that his AK-47 was surplus to his needs, and donated the weapon to RAWtools to be forged into 3 hand tools for gardening. Other donors have included parents who discovered weapons in the possession of their juvenile sons, veterans who had been contemplating suicide and decided to dispose of their firearms, spouses or children who had inherited the guns from men who had used them to kill themselves.

Mike Martin has an Anabaptist faith, and was influenced by the theologian, Walter Brueggemann, with the idea that conflict can be healthy or unhealthy... and people who have been hurt need to bring their pain to speech. "What do you do when someone takes your kids?", asks David Works, who lost two of his four children to a shooter who attacked a church.

RAWtools is building networks and seeking donations of money as well as guns.

For an interview with Mike Martin from 2/17/15 on KCMJ (Martin segment begins at 7:08 on the Soundcloud playback)

http://rawtools.org/what-we-do

Awesome!

Hmmm - a couple years ago, I turned some metal from a wrecked Ford into an AK-47. The only difficult part was rifling the barrel.

Circle of life.

Circle of death.

Its just metal.

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Originally Posted by Teacher Terry

Circle of death.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Teacher Terry

Circle of death.

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Gardening causes death too. It's pretty much unavoidable.

Firearms can preserve life as well, I used one just a few weeks ago to this end.

As to the virtues of this specific charity's efforts - they are looking for crowd funding for to support employees, to then use significant inputs of energy, labor, and materials to turn perfectly good firearms into overpriced garden tools. For the cost of one of these tools, and the energy/labor involved, or the value of the destroyed firearm which already has energy/labor embodied in its existence, you could save a fair number of human lives, instead of engaging in hairshirt virtue signaling.

https://nothingbutnets.net/

I understand how a gun owner might want to dispose of a firearm, either to get it out of circulation or because it no longer works safely. I had an old hunting shotgun that was broken and could not be repaired. The only thing I could think of for safe disposal was to take it to the police department. Putting it in the trash did not seem like a totally safe thing. I called ahead, left it in my car, and reported to the front desk. It was a long and not pleasant process. They photocopied my ID and seemed to do some sort of time consuming background check. Then had to wait for two not very friendly officers to escort me to my car. The shotgun was broken down, the barrel as one piece and the stock and trigger assembly another, and very obviously could not function, but I was not allowed to touch it to hand to the officers and was mildly reprimanded for trying. It took close to an hour out of my day. That won't happen again.

I love it. It's in the Bible, right, that our swords shall be turned into ploughshares?

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Originally Posted by Tybee

I love it. It's in the Bible, right, that our swords shall be turned into ploughshares?

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But the Hávamál says:

Ósnjallr maðr
hyggsk munu ey lifa,
ef hann við víg varask;
en elli gefr
hánum engi frið,
þótt hánum geirar gefi.

Which is roughly

The foolish man thinks he will live forever
if he refrains from fighting;
but old age won’t provide him a truce,
even if the spears do.

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Originally Posted by Rogar

I understand how a gun owner might want to dispose of a firearm, either to get it out of circulation or because it no longer works safely. I had an old hunting shotgun that was broken and could not be repaired. The only thing I could think of for safe disposal was to take it to the police department. Putting it in the trash did not seem like a totally safe thing. I called ahead, left it in my car, and reported to the front desk. It was a long and not pleasant process. They photocopied my ID and seemed to do some sort of time consuming background check. Then had to wait for two not very friendly officers to escort me to my car. The shotgun was broken down, the barrel as one piece and the stock and trigger assembly another, and very obviously could not function, but I was not allowed to touch it to hand to the officers and was mildly reprimanded for trying. It took close to an hour out of my day. That won't happen again.

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hunh. My neighbor discovered a handgun buried in her front garden. It was quite rusty and had some holes. Our neighborhood policeman was was quite friendly when he took it. We have also handed over suspected crank (it wasnt but it was packaged to look like crank) and the policeman eas fne with taking it, no report needed.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

hunh. My neighbor discovered a handgun buried in her front garden. It was quite rusty and had some holes. Our neighborhood policeman was was quite friendly when he took it. We have also handed over suspected crank (it wasnt but it was packaged to look like crank) and the policeman eas fne with taking it, no report needed.

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Yes, I was surprised of the process. I'm not the sort to attract suspicion. I understand some caution with a stranger and a weapon, but I was not treated politely and did not ever hear the words thanking me or even saying something about doing the right thing. It almost seemed like they were unfamiliar with dealing with such a thing. If there is a next time I'll look into having it made into garden tools.