After watching a soldier carrying his gun, street musician Cesar Lopez of Bogota, Columbia, decided to fashion a guitar out of a rifle and use it to protest violence. So, one wonders, was he being ironic, then, when he picked a vintage Winchester rifle as the base for his instrument? After all, Winchester did build rifles that “won the West” as well as the vaunted “peacemaker” six-shooter.

Lopez calls the contraption an escopetarra (that’s guntar to us gringos). Escopeta is Spanish for rifle and guitarra for guitar.  No matter how nicely the guntar sounds, though, we doubt its music will match the sweet sounds made by the Winchester before it was mangled.

The Miami Herald has the complete story including a photo gallery.