"AND THEY SHALL FORGE THEIR SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES." Isaiah 2:4

St. Paul’s Social Justice Ministry is devoted to getting the guns out of homes because they pose such serious risks to children
​and other members of our community.

GUNS TO GARDENS: April 18, 2026

Oakland buyback event helps turn guns into garden tools
April 19, 2026, SF Chronicle
​Full article here

By Christian Leonard

Two AK-style rifles, one AR-15, a few Glock pistols and two Uzi submachine guns - one small enough to fit in a backpack.

These were some of the 98 firearms collected by volunteers from faith congregations and the Oakland Police Department on Saturday in an effort to cultivate new uses for the weapons - as garden tools.

The Guns to Gardens buyback program encouraged community members to exchange firearms - no questions asked - for Target gift cards worth up to $300, as well as garden tools formed from previous exchanges. The weekend event, held in the parking lot of At Thy Word Ministries in East Oakland, marked the faith-based group's sixth iteration of the program.

After a firearm is brought in, the police department checks its serial number to make sure it wasn't stolen. The weapon is then disabled, with rifles and shotguns turned into garden trowels and tillers.

Having a firearm in the home dramatically increases the risk of suicide, homicide and accidental injury of household members, organizers of the buyback said. Guns in the home are also a prime target for thieves, who use them for other crimes, the organizers said.

"It just takes one incident, a gun being in the wrong place, in the wrong time around the wrong individual ... and it changes everybody's life," said Oakland police Capt. Gordon Dorham.

Research on the effectiveness of gun buybacks is mixed, with recent studies showing that the voluntary programs have not significantly reduced violence, homicide or overall crime on their own.

Some researchers, however, argue that the buybacks provide narrower benefits, such as safely removing unwanted firearms from homes, raising awareness and possibly contributing to suicide prevention when combined with broader weapons safety or violence prevention strategies.

"If you do a thousand hours of work, you save one life, that's it - that's what it's worth," said John Colle Rogers, the Oakland blacksmith who uses the surrendered weapons to make garden tools.

Many of the surrendered guns are broken or in poor condition, said volunteer Andrew Hawthorn. Other donors inherited their guns from family members but don't want them. One of the firearms exchanged Saturday was owned by a man on parole whose grandmother persuaded him to give it up, according to Hawthorn.

Volunteer Cara Meredith said Mayor Barbara Lee has encouraged Guns to Gardens to hold its buyback event each quarter. The group is seeking additional funding from the city and donors to do so. Each event, Meredith said, costs roughly $10,000 for gift cards and a stipend for Rogers.

Guns to Gardens is inspired by Isaiah 2:4, a prophecy of universal peace that declares that nations will "beat their swords into plowshares" by transforming tools of war into agricultural instruments.

Please help Guns to Gardens grow HERE! THANK YOU!
Video by Andrew Hawthorn.
Photos by Andrew Hawthorn and Cara Meredith

Meet our Blacksmith, John Colle Rogers

PictureJohn, as an altar boy at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in North Dakota.
To John, forging these guns into garden tools is spiritual, literally transforming a weapon that hurts people into a tool for raising food and flowers.

THANK YOU JOHN!
 
Picture
John Rogers today, with the tools that he forged.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

- DONATE HERE to help underwrite the costs of the event. 

- Volunteer to help at the next event event. Contact Paula Hawthorn [email protected]
​
- Spread the word: Encourage donations, volunteers, and gun drop off at our next event, June 2024.