Donation event March 28 collected 62 guns; underscored need for gun violence prevention
On a chilly Saturday morning, well before the official start time, cars were lined up in the parking lot of St. Josephine Bakhita Parish in north St. Louis, their drivers waiting to hand over rifles, pistols and shotguns they no longer wanted in their homes.
By 9:10 a.m., organizers estimated at least 37 guns had already been collected for dismantling, while a line of vehicles stretched out into the street. By the end of the two-hour event, a total of 62 firearms had been collected as part of the Guns to Gardens initiative.
Guns to Gardens is a national initiative that started in 2012, following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that year. Former Mennonite pastor Mike Martin was inspired to become a blacksmith and recycle guns into basic garden tools. He created a network of blacksmiths, called RAWTools and collaborated with several others to create the Guns to Gardens initiative.
Julie Burchett of Webster Groves Presbyterian Church is among those who helped organize the March 28 event at St. Josephine Bakhita, along with members of the archdiocesan Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. Several other gun recycling events have been held locally since 2023, but the one at St. Josephine Bakhita was by far the most successful, Burchett said.
Burchett learned about Guns to Gardens through the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, a church-affiliated organization that includes “action circles,” where volunteers and congregations are taught how to organize Guns to Gardens events.
Organizers offered grocery store gift cards in exchange for firearms. They quickly ran out, but the guns kept coming.
“We had one guy come through with 12,” Burchett said. “We did not have enough gift cards to give him for all of them, so he took the rest of them home. He’s going to come back to our next event.”
Dismantled firearms from previous collection events have been transformed into sculpture art. Those are displayed at Webster Groves Presbyterian Church, with plans to tour them to churches, libraries and other locations later this year around National Gun Violence Awareness Day in June. Plans are underway to create new artwork for display in community gardens, with information about the Guns to Gardens initiative.
“My hope is that, certainly, it raises awareness of the need to … surrender guns that are no longer serving a purpose in people’s homes, and that guns in the home that are not in use can be a liability, especially where children are living and where children are involved,” said Mary Lisa Penilla, a St. Margaret of Scotland parishioner and member of the archdiocesan task force. “We know that gun violence has become the number one cause of death for children and adolescents, and so removing guns is part of that solution.”
Dr. Alexander Garza, also part of the archdiocesan task force, was among those who helped retrieve firearms from donors’ vehicles to be dismantled. He noted that people were from all walks of life — men and women, younger and older adults and couples — and brought a mix of rifles, pistols and other firearms. Most of the guns appeared to be older and had likely been sitting unused in homes for some time, and he said owners wanted a safe way to get rid of them.
Garza said the event was one small way to raise awareness of the impact of gun violence in the community.
“I think the benefit of it is bringing awareness to the issue. It’s not going to solve gun violence, obviously,” he said. “But the one benefit that it does have is it brings it front of mind for people. It’s an awareness out in the community that gun violence is a major issue. It’s the number one killer of young men, particularly young Black men in our community. And that alone, I think, is significant enough.”
More information
National Guns to Gardens initiative: www.gunstogardens.org
To learn more about Guns to Gardens in St. Louis, email Julie Burchett at burchett.juliekay@gmail.com
To learn about the archdiocesan Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, visit stlreview.com/47AmpN7
The task force has made free gun locks available to parishes in the archdiocese. To request one, contact your parish or email GVPTF@archstl.org.
