Yesterday, on the 31^st anniversary of John Lennon’s death, former Beatle Ringo Starr launched a new anti-weapons initiative, not only in honor of his friend and band mate, but to promote “peace and love.”

Starr took his artistic skills to a new level by designing a statue for the The Non-Violence Project. The unveiled statue was that of a gun and its barrel tied in a knot supporting Starr’s hopes for tougher sentences for anyone caught with guns.

The drummer, 71, spoke about his stance at Gibson Studio in London and said, “If you are caught with a gun it should be a higher sentence.”

“Guns are just becoming more and more. They’re like the death of choice. So we hope that young people will stop.

“I can’t stand up and dictate to the world: ‘it’s over – no more guns.’ I can just do what I do, and there’s another side to the story which is peace and love.”

Starr also spoke about when he heard Lennon had died. In 1980, Lennon was shot and killed by Mark Chapman outside of the Dakota building in New York. This was a “mad moment” for Starr as he explained “My stepchildren called saying, ‘Something’s happened to John.’ And you don’t think, ‘He’s been killed,’ so you say, ‘Well, what’s happened?’”

“They called me back. They called and said, ‘John’s been killed. He’s been shot and he’s dead.’”

In the midst of talking about his friend, Starr pointed to his statue and said “It was a bad day. But it was a bad day because someone took one of these and shot John.”

The multi-colored statue even has ‘Imagine’ written above the trigger for Lennon’s famous song about peace. In reference to his artwork, Starr said “I think they should be produced bigger and placed on a plinth on Trafalgar Square. Other musicians should make one too. They should spread it out.”

Just imagine all the people whose lives could be saved by taking part in this initiative.

(Source: www.ecorazzi.com )