Guns to Gardens: Spokane group transforms firearms into garden tools

By Norah McLaughlin | FāVS News Reporter

Last month the community was invited to the Covenant United Methodist Church to participate in the third “Guns to Gardens” event. This event is a way to advance a message of non-violence in a “tangible way,” by taking donated guns and forging them into garden tools, explained Tom Robinson, a retired attorney and professor of American politics from Gonzaga University. He is a co-founder of the non-profit organization New Story Spokane.

In past events, they turned a revolver and a pump-action shotgun into garden tools such as a trowel or a garden hoe, according to the Rev. Roger Hudson, a retired United Methodist minister and a co-founder of New Story Spokane. The first guns forged were donated by Hudson and Robinson themselves. 

For the first time, they had two forges that they used to make a garden trowel from a rifle. Two other guns were dismantled and will be turned into a weeding tool and jewelry at a later date, said Robinson. They have now disabled and forged seven firearms so far, according to Hudson.

“While that is a small, if not infinitesimal dent in the overall number of guns in the country, it is a  symbolic attempt to suggest that this can be done. That we don’t have to continue to live with the gun in its current condition, that we can live with the gun in other conditions and in other ways,” said Robinson. 

Gun violence declared public health crisis

According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2022, there were over 48,000 firearm-related deaths in the U.S., about 132 deaths every day. NPR in June 2024 reported that U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a national public health crisis. 

“We saw [the event] as a way to begin to highlight that issue, as well as suggest that there are some choices that we can begin making that would operate to move society and our culture in a more non-violent direction,” said Robinson.

To obtain the donated firearms, they follow the law and only receive pieces of a gun. In the handover process, the gun is disabled and rendered inoperable by the owner. To donate guns to this cause, contact New Story Spokane or RAWtools, another organization dedicated to reducing gun violence through turning firearms into garden tools.

“We are hoping a number of people will begin to start contributing theirs as well, as they make the choice to live differently,” said Robinson.

These events promote “saying ‘no’ to the way of the sword, ‘yes,’ to the way of the Lord,” according to the press release. Hudson expands on this, saying that it’s about the biblical point of view of turning swords into ploughshares. 

“Essentially, we have updated that Isaiah passage… that talks about spears and swords to include the modern weaponry, the gun,” said Robinson. 

This quote also reflects the vision of “every man, woman and child sitting under their own vine and fig tree and people shall study war no more, so to speak,” said Hudson. 

First garlic planting marks new phase

This event was unique because they had the opportunity to plant two cloves of a local variant of incilium garlic using the tool they had forged. In the spring, they hope to continue to fill out the rest of the garden at the church with flowers using the tools they have created, explained Hudson and Robinson. 

“The vision is not just guns to garden tools,” said Hudson. “The vision is only completed if its guns go to gardens. It’s the gardens that will grow the, figuratively speaking, vine and fig tree under which every person will sit and be provided for.”

This event was inspired by an art piece the church has to promote awareness about gun violence. Hudson explained that there is a Japanese legend about how if people fold 1,000 origami cranes, it is equal to one prayer for peace. In the church, there is a mobile of white peace cranes, interspersed with red cranes that represent a mass shooting somewhere in the United States, according to Hudson. 

“It was just heartbreaking to see how the white peace crane … just began to go red as we added mass shooting after mass shooting,” said Hudson.

Movement plans monthly events

There are plans to have another Guns to Gardens event in the spring or summer where they will help people put in their own gardens in their homes, explained Hudson.

“We’re hoping to begin to get together on a monthly basis, perhaps a quarterly basis, if we have time, because we’ve got all this metal now, and we’d like to turn it into garden tools or jewelry,” said Hudson. 

There are other organizations and groups of individuals who are starting a movement to widen the guns-to-gardens initiative in Spokane that will help expand the movement and bring forward the vision of peace this event hopes to achieve, explained Hudson.

“By doing this kind of event, our hope is that people will begin to understand they aren’t impotent when it comes to these big issues like gun violence,” said Robsinson. “We do have a choice to make as to how we live together, and we can choose to live more peaceably together.” 

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