ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — In a unique initiative to promote gun violence awareness, an Asheville church hosted an event Saturday that allowed community members to surrender their firearms in exchange for gardening tools.
The First Baptist Church of Asheville held “Guns to Gardens,” a drive-thru style event, that encouraged participants to bring their unloaded guns to be transformed into garden tools.
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Casey Callahan, the coordinating pastor at the church, shared his personal motivation for participating in the event.
“These were handguns,” he said. “Our family did not need them, and so instead of just letting them sit in a box, get passed down to be unused or potentially be used for violence, I got to go and watch them get sawed up. It was a very moving thing for me personally.”
Callahan told News 13 that he plans to gift the gardening tool, which was once a family gun.