Only in New Orleans...


Plan swaps sounds of gunfire for jazz; youth asked to trade violence for creativity

by Bruce Nolan
Saturday, August 17, 2008

A group of churches and nonprofits Friday announced a novel plan to steer young people away from violence and into the teaching hands of some of the city's best jazz musicians and artists. The price of entry: a gun.

On Sept. 6, young people who appear at either of two centers with a gun can ask New Orleans police to swap it -- no questions asked -- for musical instruments or cameras, and then enroll in a jazz or arts education program, said the Rev. Bill Terry, who unveiled the Horns for Guns initiative.

Other parts of the program will offer counseling and support to parents of murdered children. And ad hoc neighborhood leaders will get training in what to look for and where to send struggling friends who need mental health care, he said.

No guns are required to obtain those services, he said.

Gun buyback programs are an old anti-crime technique, and one generally thought to be not very useful. But in Terry's explanation Friday at Christ Church Cathedral Episcopal, the presentation of a gun is the least important element of the program -- almost of symbolic value.

More important is what comes next: steering young people into music education at the hands of people such as Derrick Tabb, the drummer for the Rebirth Brass Band, whose Roots of Music Foundation passes on the city's jazz tradition to young people.

Terry and others, such as the Rev. Willie Gable of Progressive Baptist Church, emphasized that young people have to be given safe alternatives to be kept away from violence. In fact, "If we get 300 kids and only 20 have guns, 300 kids are going to get horns," Terry said.

Besides music education, Horns for Guns will provide instruction in photography and other graphic arts, Terry said. Adults will get access to mental health care, he said.

Terry's innovative ministry at St. Anna Episcopal Church has attracted national attention. It is at St. Anna that Terry maintains a gruesome "murder board" listing the names of every homicide victim in New Orleans. Since Katrina, the church has also hosted weekly jam sessions for musicians, providing some financial support for them and creating a neighborhood center.

Sponsors said the Horns for Guns program opens Sept. 6 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Treme Community Center, 900 N. Villere, and Progressive Baptist Church, 1214 S. Robertson.

Terry said the program stitches together a number of disparate programs such as Tabb's Roots for Music and the mental health initiative REACH NOLA. He said it has money from an array of donors to supply 300 horns, cameras and other supplies. Wall Street's iconic Trinity Episcopal Church will collect for it among its congregation in two weeks, he said.

Financial donations and instruments in good condition are needed for Horns for Guns. For more information, call St. Anna's Church at 547.947.2121 or send e-mail to Father Bill at

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