New Mount Rose Baptist Church recently hosted Fort Worth’s first Guns to Gardens event, where community volunteers dismantled 36 surrendered firearms using chop saws, grinders, and blacksmithing.
The remaining metal parts will later be repurposed into garden tools and art, transforming the components of unwanted firearms into symbols of growth. The effort seeks to reduce unintentional shootings, suicides, and violent crime.
The morning began with event organizer Rev. Kyev Tatum leading volunteers in prayer. He highlighted the devastating effects of gun violence and the need for community action, including within the 76104 ZIP code, where New Mount Rose Baptist Church is located.
Ira Tatum (no relation), a member of the ministry coalition that helped organize the event, spoke on the need for the program due to the lack of care regarding gun violence in Black communities and “life expectancies getting cut short.”
The prevalence of gun violence in 76104, home to primarily Black and Latino residents, makes initiatives like Guns to Gardens particularly important, providing constructive outlets and safety education to the community. According to U.S. Census data, more than 30% of the community live below the poverty line, which is more than double the North Texas average.
These economic challenges, stemming from generations of segregation and economic neglect, are contributing factors to the area’s high crime rate and low average life expectancy of just 67 years old, the lowest in the state, based on data from UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Throughout the day, trained volunteers worked in an assembly line, breaking down the guns into their parts in accordance with the standards of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). This process includes cuts in at least three critical spots: the forward wall or barrel mounting area, the rear wall, and the fire control component pin with the firearm receiver ultimately melted.
A way gun owners can help prevent unintentional gun violence is by becoming familiar with firearm safety. Event organizer Rev. Jan Orr-Harter says Guns to Gardens leaders learn firearm safety through NRA education and training.
Nearly half of gun owners do not store their firearms securely, and the ATF estimates roughly 266,000 guns are stolen from cars and homes annually. Orr-Harter emphasized the importance of properly securing firearms at home, noting gun violence involving minors, such as school shootings, occurs with guns belonging to family members.
Guns to Gardens plans to host an upcoming family-friendly festival, likely in the spring, focused on blacksmithing the disassembled parts into garden tools. The festival will allow families affected by gun violence to partake in the hammering process of blacksmithing, providing a space for cathartic release toward the weapons that took loved ones.
As Fort Worth’s first event of its kind came to a close, Rev. Tatum gathered the volunteers for a second prayer. He said gun violence is rooted in trauma, but he expressed hope for the future, saying that “when you plant hope, when you give hope, it grows.”
