From firearms to garden tools, Guns2Gardens Massachusetts is breaking the ground for change

Among the nearly 110 firearms scattered across the table, Walter Clark browses over a rifle barrel and a pistol, considering whether the firearms will make his idea come together.

He wants to forge a peace sign out of the discarded gunmetal scraps.

“I was thinking about forging fingers,” Clark says, reaching for a shotgun. “I see the clenched fist crushing the gun in the middle of the peace sign.”

As a welder at Stonybrook Metal Arts and Sculpture School in Jamaica Plain, Clark is part of a new initiative to repurpose firearms into gardening tools, as well as the occasional creative sculpture. The group leading this mission is Guns2Gardens Massachusetts. They work with police departments across the state to obtain scraps of firearms from buyback programs and voluntary drop-offs.

“Now we are starting to have material from people who don’t want their guns anymore,” said G2G Founder John Hayden, of Jamaica Plain. “They [gun donors] did the hard work of deciding to act, deciding that they didn’t want a firearm in their house.”

Like many, Hayden had been affected by the powerful response to gun-related tragedies across the nation. He was inspired to create an avenue for healing in communities impacted by gun violence.

“We see that even in a state like Massachusetts, which has good gun control, there are still lives lost every few weeks,” said Hayden, a novice blacksmith at Prospect Hill Forge in Waltham. “Roxbury, Mattapan, Jamaica Plain, there’s a lot of people there that are trying to organize and make their communities safer and better places.”

At first, it was a relatively modest endeavor.

Last April, Hayden -- along with G2G co-founders Anne Sasser and Carl West -- met with Michael Martin, the founder of RAWtools, Inc. in Colorado, and received 10 pieces of gunmetal scraps to work with. RAWtools, Inc., is a similar organization with a mission to repurpose and forge weapons into different tools.

By August, G2G put several garden tools to use at the Egleston Square Peace Garden’s fall celebration, which honored youth lost to gun violence. “That was our first donation to the city of Boston,” Hayden said.

More recently, G2G took part in the 18th Annual Goods for Gun Buyback in central Massachusetts. The event took place last year on Dec. 14, the anniversary of the 2012 mass shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

Of the 163 firearms collected from this buyback program, 110 went to G2G.

“Up until this year, the scraps were crushed, thrown away into a dumpster and discarded,” said Hayden.

Now, Hayden and the volunteer blacksmiths have made trowels from rifle barrels, along with hand-sized gardening hoes, hand-sized cultivators and small scoops from the scraps. But more garden tools are in the works.

In addition to creating his own piece from gunmetal scraps, Clark wants to teach younger students what they are capable of making. “When you see I take a gun barrel and turn it into a garden tool right in front of you, you become interested,” said Clark.

In the midst of a national gun debate that has proven particularly contentious, meanwhile, it’s an idea that has managed to gain traction on both sides.

Garrett Tucker has been shooting guns since he was 6-years-old, when a neighbor in Texas invited Tucker to his ranch. A licensed gun owner in multiple countries, Tucker said that it took him months to get a license in Massachusetts, where he is now attending Northeastern University.

While Tucker enjoys going to the firing range to connect with friends, he still encourages gun owners who do not have a purpose for their gun to participate in buyback programs.

“If you’re someone who doesn’t go shooting anymore, it’s good to repurpose the gun and there’s no reason not to,” said Tucker.

When forging a new tool, Hayden aims to respect the decision of the donor to turn in their firearm as well as the firearm itself.

“How do we recognize what this piece was? So much work went into these designs,” said Hayden, who will often take intricate designs carved into the firearm and turn them into a handle for a garden tool.

Now, workshops are being offered at Stonybrook Fine Arts and Prospect Hill Forge for those interested in blacksmithing or giving back to their community by forging garden tools.

“One of the important things we all agree upon is that when you utilize a gun, you should transform it into something new,” said Sasser, director at Stonybrook Fine Arts.

After the buyback in central Massachusetts last December, David Hogg, co-founder of March For Our Lives and a survivor of the Stoneman Douglas school shooting in Florida, assembled guns collected by G2G to create a “peace wreath.”

However, Sasser recognizes that not everyone will be interested in creating something out of the scrap metal.

“People may not necessarily be making art out of the gun,” said Sasser. “Moving forward, we’re hoping to connect with more of the kids and adults and just let them swing the hammer.”

Sasser believes that simply hammering a firearm can be therapeutic to someone affected by gun violence.

In the meantime, G2G is focused on expanding their relationships with police departments and getting the community more engaged. Sasser hopes that young people find opportunity in G2G, such as developing an interest in welding or using it as a path to heal.

“There’s a connection around creativity that transcends race, culture, everything,” said Clark. “Take a weapon and turn it into something beautiful.”