Drake's Place: September 2024

Tuesday, September 3, 2024

We lack gardening tools.

CBS: Philadelphia activist trying to make streets safer by forging guns into jewelry, art and tools.

Shane Claiborne, a Tennessee native, grew up around guns. But when he moved to North Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood, he saw too many lives lost to gun violence. [Violence caused by guns or criminals with guns? There's a difference. - DD]

He felt he had to do something, so two years ago Claiborne opened RAWtools Philadelphia.

"My philosophy is any gun we can chop up makes the world a little safer," he said.

"It's mindboggling what people have," Claiborne said of the weapons collected by the shop. "We've had grenade launchers, Uzis, weapons of war."

A lifelong activist, Claiborne has been to warzones to advocate for nonviolence, but never thought he'd be fighting a war on his home front.
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"That was one of those wake up moments where our country was like never again, but then we let it happen again and again," he said.

After that, Claiborne joined the RAW effort, breaking down guns into jewelry, art and garden tools. On average, the group collects 1,000 guns a year.

He's been to "warzones." Tell us. Name them. The story doesn't identify which warzones, but I'd like to know if he's been to downtown Philly, Chicago, Baltimore, SF or LA late at night or the early AM.

Nor do "we" let it happen again and again. The revolving doors of courtrooms and judges who give lenient sentences or slaps on the wrist to repeat offenders allow this to happen. Don't allow people like Claiborne to paint law-abiding gun owners as the cause of gun violence because we're not.

The story refers to RAW. This is RAW.

These are some of RAW's board members and no, we're not surprised.