In one of the latest efforts to reduce gun violence by turning weapons into innocuous objects, such as gardening tools, more than 70 firearms were taken out of commission recently in Denver, Colorado.
As the nation reels from mass shootings, local Presbyterians have joined with other faith communities to mark Gun Violence Prevention Month by “Wear Orange” events and Guns to Gardens safe surrender days, most held in church parking lots. The June gun violence prevention activities will culminate in Salt Lake City on Sunday with a Guns to Gardens demonstration as the PC(U.S.A.) gathers for its 226th General Assembly.
The Gun Violence Prevention Working Group of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF) has been hard at work. The team of 15 Working Group members has completely re-tooled its primary resource, the Gun Violence Prevention Congregational Toolkit.
Near the end of a recent Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) webinar, Tracie Campbell made an impassioned plea for people of faith to “do something” to curtail gun violence in this country.
On a June Saturday in Concord, New Hampshire, a young couple with a baby in a car seat drove up to the Wesley United Methodist Church to safely surrender a handgun. Why? “New baby!”
Winter is no match for Americans who are weary of gun violence and who are determined to do something about it. From Dec. 3-10, from a frigid church parking lot in Cambridge, Wisconsin to a rainy day in Decatur, Georgia, church members and others fired up their chop saws to join the Guns to Gardens movement. Their goal? Transforming unwanted guns into garden tools.
While thousands of Americans were marching for gun safety in 450 locations and 20 U.S. senators were working on a compromise gun reform bill, a group of congregations across the nation turned on their chop saws.
