The Association of Blacksmiths is proposing to government to engage members to produce and supply metal desks to Senior High Schools.

It also wants to manufacture beds and drip stands for public health facilities as well.

Ashanti Regional Chairman, Nana Kwame Adjei, says such an arrangement will reduce manufacture of weapons which has serious implication on national security.

He says the perennial breakage and shortage of wood furniture in schools will be addressed to increases employment.

He says currently members make farm tools such as ploughs, Go- to-hell, pruners, hoes, rake and mattock which they find difficult to sell due to lack of market.

Nana Adjei says though the blacksmith trade is lucrative, poor patronage of products has left many craftsmen out of business.

He says frustrated members are forced to resort to manufacture and sale of weapons.

Nana Addjei spoke at a sensitization exercise by the National Commission on Small Arms and Light weapons in Kumasi.

Chairman of the commission, Dr. Paul Frimpong-Manso says intensified effort is underway to educate the public on proliferation and misuse of small arms.

He says 80 percent of guns retrieved from robbers, land guards and combatants in communal conflicts are locally manufactured.