Guns to Gardens coalition of Epiphany Church in Euclid helps removes guns from streets
Jun. 11—The Guns to Gardens coalition of the Epiphany Church hosted its National Gun Buyback Day, allowing people to anonymously trade in their firearms in support of decreasing gun violence.
Guns at the event were taken apart and disabled by officer Mitch Houser of the Euclid Police Department before the anonymously donated weapons are then melted down and forged into gardening tools, art and jewelry. The idea stems from the idea the bible verse Isiah 2:04, speaking of and end to war by forging swords into gardening tools.
"As we know the situation today gun violence is rampant," Deacon of the Epiphany Church Dan Hind said. "They come in they get a voucher, it's all anonymous and later on we are going to have a vigil. We pray to solve the issue of gun violence and ask ourselves what can we do to get the message out there that we can solve our problems with love and not violence."
The Rev. Rosalind C. Hughes is the main organizer behind the program at Epiphany Church. Hughes is an avid supporter of gun violence prevention that seeks new and creative means of deterring violence. Hughes is the author of the book "Whom Shall I Fear? Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence," a book that details the challenge of faith in the current climate of violence and how to overcome it.
Gift cards were provided to individuals who turned in their fire arms, and the church offered one-on-one confessions and prayers to fulfill each individuals spiritual needs.
"This is about extending the ministry of beating gun violence and expanding creativity," Hughes said. "Once the pieces and parts are dismantled they will be transferred and formed into tools."
The event took place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 11, in the parking lot at the Church of the Epiphany, 21000 Lakeshore Blvd., in the midst of National Gun Violence Awareness Week.
The event successfully took over 20 firearms from donators to be made into gardening tools.
"We sit at home watching the news seeing gun violence in the world and nation and in our backyard and we are trying to do something about it to help out and provide a way to help," Deacon of the Epiphany Church Barb Tellford said. "We are doing all we can to help out."
At the event volunteers dressed in orange to support a stand against gun violence. The color was chosen due to the use of orange to differentiate hunters from one another in the wild.
Euclid City Council member Christine McIntosh came out to show her support, and said that she is constantly trying her best to aid the Epiphany Church in its stand against gun violence.
"Rosiland C. Hughes came to me and asked me to help and I jumped on the idea because of how interesting and important it was," McIntosh said. "I found that Rosalind and I see eye to eye on our philosophies of community building, curbing gun violence, and building up the community."
Hughes asks everyone to give their thoughts and prayers to those who have suffered from gun violence and asking that if you are in possession of a firearm that could cause potential harm to themselves or others to consider removing it anonymously donating it to Guns to Gardens or a similar program.
