By Rosario Ruiz
There are around 639,000,000 firearms in the world, which represents one for every 10 inhabitants. The United States is the country with the most guns in the world, followed by Yemen. Mexico, is the fifth country in the world with the most unregistered firearms—around 13 million, according to data from The Small Arms Survey.
Annually, an average of 250,000 people die because of firearms. Brazil, Colombia, the United States, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela account for half of all global cases, including homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths.
Because of the horrible impact that guns have on humanity, the International Day for the Destruction of Firearms has been commemorated since 2001, on July 9. This date was established by the UN at the General Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons. It is estimated that on average about 800,000 weapons are destroyed each year to eradicate their use and eliminate violence; unfortunately, of each one that is eliminated, 10 more are manufactured.
There are several methods to destroy weapons. They can be cut up, and buried between two layers of cement. Another method is to have a steamroller runs over them. They can also be merged and become art, as does Pedro Reyes, a Mexican visual artist. His work is inspired by political, social, ecological and educational ideas.
Reyes takes weapons and transforms them into musical instruments. Rifles, machine guns, pistols and revolvers become flutes, guitars, marimbas, pianos, drums and musical boxes. His message is very clear: turn instruments of war into instruments of peace. “These weapons that took so many lives are transformed into music, into a requiem honoring lost souls,” he says. In 2007, Reyes created the «Shovels for Guns» project where he melted down 1,527 weapons from Sinaloa, and turned them into the same number of shovels to plant trees around the world.
Let us all commemorate this date because it is very important on the path to achieve a world of peace. We must reflect on the damage caused by weapons, and what we can do as a society to reduce their use.
